Estonian Ultra-athlete Rait Ratasepp set a new world record on August 11, 2024, at the IUTA World Cup series ultratriathlon event in Estonia. In the event, in his home country, he completed 10 iron distance triathlons (i.e. 2.4-mile swim, 112-mile bike and 26.2-mile bike) over ten consecutive days. He finished with a total time of 99 hours, 49 minutes, and 47 seconds.
The previous world record, set in 2016 by German athlete Richard Jung, was 106 hours and 11 minutes.
From August 2-11, 2024, Rait Ratasepp competed in the Ultra Triathlon Estonia, completing one iron distance triathlon each day for ten days. On seven out of the ten days, Ratasepp finished in under ten hours.
- Day 1 (August 2) finish time: 9:51:08
- Day 2 (August 3) finish time: 9:51:25
- Day 3 (August 4) finish time: 9:53:34
- Day 4 (August 5) finish time: 9:52:55
- Day 5 (August 6) finish time: 9:56:59
- Day 6 (August 7) finish time: 9:55:31
- Day 7 (August 8) finish time: 9:58:34
- Day 8 (August 9) finish time: 10:01:16
- Day 9 (August 10) finish time: 10:11:43
- Day 10 (August 11) finish time: 10:16:38
On the fifth day of the competition, Ratasepp became a father for the second time. He crossed the finish line that day just before 17:00 local time and managed to drive to the maternity hospital 125 km away in another city and be there for the birth of his son.
This is one of the many records set by Ratasepp. In 2021, he organized a 60-time ultra triathlon for himself on the Canary Island of Fuerteventura. For 60 consecutive days in a row, Ratasepp swam 3.8 km, cycled 180 km, and ran 42.2 km every day.
In total, he swam 228 km, cycled 10,800 km, and ran 2,532 km over 60 days. He also finished with a world-record time of 657:40:08.
In 2022, Ratasepp participated in the Swiss Ultratriathlon World Cup, where he completed one iron distance triathlon every day for five consecutive days and set the world record for this distance (49:32:49).
The Ultra Triathlon Estonia was held for the first time this year, offering five different distances: double continuous and double per day, triple per day, quintuple per day and deca per day ultra triathlons. A total of 17 athletes from Estonia, France, Finland, Hungary, Japan, the USA, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, and Germany took part.
A new world record was also set in the double per day ultra triathlon, where João Rebelo from Portugal finished with a total time of 20:51:27, improving the previous record set by Germany’s Thorsten Eckert in 2023 (22:13:14) by one hour, 41 minutes, and 47 seconds. On the first day, Rebelo completed a full triathlon in 9:58:06 and on the second day in 10:53:20.
www.ultratriestonia.ee
www.raitratasepp.ee
