ASICS Beat the Sun is nature's toughest relay. The unique event will see 8 continental teams, made up of 22 countries, attempt to circumnavigate Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in Western Europe, between the hours of sunrise and sunset on Tuesday 21st June 2016 – the longest day of the year.
Each team will contain six athletes (3 professional and 3 amateurs) with each team relay racing around Mont Blanc with the aim of becoming the first team to complete the 130km course in 15 hours and 41 minutes. The course passes through France, Italy and Switzerland. It starts and finishes in Chamonix, France.
ASICS launched a competition to select the amateurs from all over the world. In February SU staff member and Maties Alumni, Corli Leonard entered for to be part of this spectacular race. Corli studied industrial engineering and is now working for the Centre for Renewable and Sustainable Energy Studies at SU. She grew up on a farm near Heidelberg in Gauteng and moved to Stellenbosch 8 years ago to do her Masters. She fell in love with the mountains and trail running became part of her life.
On 15 April she was notified that she is one of the 50 finalists who have been selected all over the world based on their athlete's profiles. From these 50 finalists, 24 runners will be selected.
From Africa only 3 finalists were selected from which only 1 will be selected to represent the continent. The selection criteria now depends largely on the public's votes. The voting period is from 2 to 20 May after which the final selection will be made by the ASICS Judging panel. You have one vote every 24 hours. Follow the link and select Africa – here you will find Corli Leonard.
On 23 May the amateur runner to represent Africa will be announced and we are holding thumbs that it will be this Matie.
Voting: http://races.asics.com/za/en-za/beatthesun/vote#vote-runners
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKqqR9lau7Y&feature=youtu.be
