Moroccan Rachid El Morabity and Elizabeth Barnes of Sweden continued their domination of the Marathon des Sables as they both claimed their third successive stage victories on Tuesday (April 7).
Rachid El Morabity and Elizabeth Barnes have won 3rd stage of Marathon des Sables
In temperatures well in excess of 30 degrees Celsius, El Morabity completed the 36.7-km third stage from Jebel El Otfal to Jebel Zireg in the Moroccan desert in two hours, 53 minutes, 37 seconds, finishing 2:31 ahead of compatriot Abdelkader El Mouaziz with Salameh Al Aqra of Jordan third, a further 1:47 behind.
In the women’s event, Barnes covered the course in 3:48:54, well clear of Frenchwoman Laurence Klein in second place who clocked 3:56:12. Elizabeth Howard of the United States took third place in 4:02:36.
“A hard day. It was the hardest day,” said Barnes. “Very warm – someone measured 51 degrees on their watch as we went into the dunes, and there were lots of dunes and lots of sand. I felt quite tired in the beginning, so it took a while to warm up, so to speak – but it was good.”
In the overall standings, El Morabity is 5:41 ahead of El Mouaziz, with Al Aqra third, 12:09 behind the leader. Barnes has an overall lead of almost 22 minutes over Howard, with Klein another 12 minutes back in third.
On Wednesday (April 8), the athletes will set off on the event’s longest leg, a two-day 91.7km run between between the Jebel Zireg and Jdaid.
Ventuno