Jonathan Wyatt is headed to South Africa

17 November 2005

He will compete in the event as part of team Leingruber Personal alongside Austrians Christian Amon (paragliding), Hardy Brandsotter (Kite Surfing), and Peter Presslauer (mountain-biking).

The Red Bull Cape Town Man is a multi-disciplined extreme relay race that will take place this Saturday 19th November around the city of Cape Town. Each four man team comprises of experts in these unique event disciplines - kite surfing, mountain biking, mountain running and paragliding. The arduous route, traversing sea, land and air, will push competitors to their limits as they race amidst historic and natural landmarks in and around South Africa’s Mother City.

Wyatt, who is consider one of the ‘Greatest Mountain Runners of all time’, will tackle the 20 km mountain run which criss-crosses the lower slopes of Devils peak and Table Mountain as they head towards the most grueling stage of the run - Platteklip Gorge.

From there it’s up all the way. Tackling an exposed and rocky trail, the runners will ascend to more than 1000m above sea level as they summit the table top and sprint to the final transition point.

Background

Wyatt, fivefold mountain run – world champion and, according to the Italian sports-newspaper "Gazzetta dello Sport", the best racer of the modern times recently won the World Mountain Running Trophy in front of a home town crowd in Wellington. He was also part of the winning international team in this year’s Red Bull Dolomitenmann which is probably the world’s toughest relay competition.
He was named New Zealand athlete of the Year 2004 at the annual Athletics Awards.

After competing in the 2004 Olympics where he finished 21st in the Games Marathon in a time of two hours 17 minutes 45 seconds, he went on to a week later win the world mountain running championship title in Italy. Wyatt put together an exceptional effort to regain the title he last held in 2002, making it his fourth world running title.

He was described in recent IAAF reports as "exceptional", and by Runners World as "the greatest hill/mountain runner of all time". He was also part of the wining team in this year’s 2005 Red Bull Dolomite Mann alongside his Austrian Team mates.

ENDS

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