South African trail runners Christiaan Greyling and AJ Calitz broke the Guinness World Record for the greatest vertical distance on foot on Table Mountain’s Platteklip Gorge on Monday 10 May 2021.
Photo Cred: Dané van den Heever
At 11:58 pm Monday night, the South African pair beat the previous record of 13 ascents in 24 hours by completing a grueling 14 ascents in 20 hours, with 19 376 metres climbed, reported Good Things Guy.
‘We are absolutely delighted and overjoyed to have broken the world record for the most vertical ascent and descent, on a route that is well-known to us, Platteklip Gorge on Table Mountain, one of the ‘New 7 Wonders of Nature’. It was one of the toughest days of my life with the added pressure of doing it in 20 hours because of curfew, but my K-Way partner, AJ, was strong and motivated me to triumph in what was an achievement of two very dedicated teammates,’ expressed Greyling.
Monday was a hot day and Greyling expressed that although fatigue has set in due to the heat, there was no way they were stopping.
Calitz, who also holds the Guinness World Record for The Most Vertical Height Gained in 12 hours (10,257m), set in 2014 expressed how happy they both were. ‘We are absolutely broken but so happy. This is nothing short of a miracle and a team effort.’
The two runners are both ultra-runners who like a challenge from time to time so taking on this mountain wasn’t anything new to them. They also wanted to raise awareness for Edunova; a Non-Profit Company focused on the effective use of technology in disadvantaged schools throughout South Africa, reported Cape Town Etc.
PICTURE: Twitter
