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Sakurai's Agony

Yesterday's running through the hills was quickly forgotten, and today the runners enjoyed running the first 20 kilometers towards the coast on a descending road. After they had reached the Princess Highway in Nowa Nowa, they had to be more careful through the hairpin turns.

There's still a lot of vehicles transporting cargo on this old road, that leads from Sydney to to Melbourne. Anatoliy Kruglikov led from the beginning to the end of the stage again, though he did slow down in the last 20 kilometers, and nevertheless finished the stage with an average speed of 12.7 km/h. He crossed the finish line with a smile on his face and immediately headed towars his motel.

Dusan Mravlje was running in second position until the 40 kilometer mark, when Andrei Derxen managed to overtake him. " I would be glad to beat Sakurai by 20 minutes or more, so that I can show him that I'm still in the game for overall third place," said the Slovene at the start of the stage. Mravlje ran in his own pace again and didn't even try to follow Derxen, knowing that he was stronger at the moment.

Kaname Sakurai started of faster than yesterday and was keeping up with Georgs Jermolajevs, who was running in fourth place. The Latvian recovered quickly, after problems with lack of iron in his blood, and is running better than ever in this competition. Mravlje's advantage over Sakurai was 23 minutes at half way, and the question was if Kaname can come up with another one of his strong finishes, but that was not to be. His agony began in the 50th kilometer. Tired and painful muscles made him start walking for the first time in the TransAustralia Foot Race. His companions bandaged his legs and Kaname continued his run in a slow pace. Francis, Schwerk and Molnar, who were running 200 meters apart, were the first ones to overtake the Japanese. Mick Francis was increasing his advantage over Mihaly Molnar step by step, and managed to be 12 minutes and 29 seconds ahead of the Hungarian in the finish. Meanwhile, Sakurai was running slower with each step. It was really sad to see the struggling Japanese heading towards the finish line in agonizing pain. He spent the last five kilometers more or less limping. Bobby Brown overtook Sakurai close to the finish, but Kaname still deserves an award for his self-sacrifice.

Dusan Mravlje was happy with the outcome, having beaten Sakurai by anhour and 16 minutes. " One wrong move, and more than 50 days of hard work are worthless. I was lucy that both of my falls ended the way they did, although I did lose a lot precious time. Now, I have to continue with my running and hope that Kaname breaks mentaly. Persistant as he is, he could eventually come up with some good running, and I have to make sure I catch up with him in the overall standings by then."

Competitors and their escorting crews are going to spend the night in Orbost, which they passed on today's stage, but the organisers decided to lengthen the stage by 11 kilometers. Tomorrow's length of the stage, with the finish in Cann River, will therefore be back to normal. Karen was preoccupied once again today. She's most worried about Kaname's condition, and Mihaly Molnar has not completely recovered either. Luckily, the last week of the competition has begun.

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