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Pain

All those numerous kilometers have left quite a few negative concequences. Some runners handle problems better that the others, but after 53 stages, all the competitors feel some sort of pain. Even the unbeatable Russian, Anatoliy Kruglikov, was running a bit slower on the last three stages, saving his energy for days to come. Although he was second on the last two stages, he still wears a smile on his face, knowing that only injury can prevent his overall victory.

All the other runners can hardly wait to reach Canberra too. They all got their blood taken yesterday in Melbourne, which was carried out by the Australian Sports Institute, and the results showed that all the runners lack iron in thier blood. George Audley started taking pills to improve on his blood results. "I will have to take it a bit easier in the next few days, because it would be a shame for exhaustion to get the better of me, now that I've come so far," said the "Flying Fossil", who wasn't really satisfied with today's running. Kaname Sakurai came up with the worst performance so far in this competition, proving that the pain in his back is getting to him. Up untill now he's been trying hard not to show it, since Dusan Mravlje got dangerously close to him in the overall standings. His yesterday's deficit to Dusan was only 14 minutes, but today Dusan beat him by more than 47 minutes. The next few days will be crucial in this struggle for third place. In case Kaname doesn't recover soon, Dusan could make up the seven hours he needs to overtake the Japanese. Mihaly Molnar wasn't happy with his performance either, blaming all the interruptions on yesterday's stage, which left his legs in pain. Paul Every crossed the finish line exhausted and in last place for the first time, but he knows that his 10th position is virtualy inaccessible to the runners behind him.

Only two runners were completely satisfied in the finish: Anatoliy Kruglikov, beating Andrei Derxen by 58 minutes and 15 seconds and Wolfgang Schwerk who finished in third place, and was surprised since he thought his running was slow. "At first I was running with Dusan Mravlje, but later he slowed down. I managed to catch up and overtake Mick Francis and crossed the finish line alone," described his venture Wolgang. Tomorrow's stage will be a bit different, but still interesting, since the caravan will take a by-path instead of the busy main road, and continue their way to Canberra.

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