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Mravlje Vs. Sakurai

Sunday mornings are usually calm and there's little traffic on the roads. Today was no exeption, so the runners ran the first few kilometers before sunrise. The two leading Russians, Kruglikov and Derxen, along with Slovenia's Dusan Mravlje, escaped the rest of the competitors early in the stage.

Kaname Sakurai fell behind quickly and Dusan Managed to get 12 minutes ahead of the Japanese in the first ten kilometers. It is obvious that Kaname is running out of strength, and even daily massages can't completely relieve him of his back pain, which is the result of the 3930 km he has run. Besides his back problems, he si facing a bigger psychological burden, knowing that Dusan Mravlje is drastically decreasing his overall advantage. Dusan has throughout the competition mentioned quite a few times that, instead of chasing after Sakurai, he was going to run in his own pace and wait for his chance. It looks like Dusan's tactics are about to pay off, since Sakurai's state of health varies from day to day, and while Kaname faught well two days ago, finishing only seven minutes behind the Slovene, as well as yesterday, when he was half an hour slower, he was completely worn out today.

The runners took the Princess Highway to get to Bairnsdale, where they had another 25 km of running through the hilly landscape ahead of them, before they reached Bruthen. Dusan was increasing his advantage over Kaname throughout the whole stage and the Japanese crossed the finish line an hour and 26 minutes behind Dusan. Sakurai's advantage in the overall standings is now 3 hours and 54 minutes.

"The next few days will be decisive. If Sakurai's crisis continues, I have a chance, otherwise not. He is tough and could miraculously recover and maintain his advantage," predicted Dusan in the finish, while he was waiting for his main rival to arrive.

While Kruglikov and Derxen were the first two runners in the finish, their fellow runners struggled through the hills towards Bruthen. Schwerk, Francis and Molnar came into the finish one after another, behind third-placed Mravlje, in less than 5 minute intervals. Mihaly seems to have very successful tactics and is keeping Francis in sight all the time, not allowing him to get close in the overall standings. Georgs Jermolajevs performed well on today's stage, chasing Bobby Brown throughout the stage, and finished close behind the only Briton in this cometition. Marcus Muller managed to beat George Audley on the last slope of the stage, although the Australian was running ahead of the German throughout most of the stage 56. The infusion really helped Paul Every to a quicker recovery and his ruuning is improving. Today he came into the finish together with Helmut Schieke. Stefan Schlett and Karl-Heinz Kobus who can herdly wait for the last week of the competition to begin, were the last ones in the finish on this beutiful sunny day.

The ABC TV crew was realy glad that the afternoon barbecue lightened up the atmosphere and the reporters managed to interview all the competitors.

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