Irish Sun, 6 February 2009

By Barry Moran

An Irish runner sprinted into the record books yesterday by running SEVEN marathons on SEVEN continents in less than a WEEK.

Super athlete Richard Donovan, 42, finished his amazing achievement in a staggering five days, nine hours and eight minutes.

The ultra distance runner completed his marathon in Sydney yesterday, having run a total of 295 km and flown 43,000 km.

CHARITY

Richard, from Galway, had previously completed marathons in Antartica, Cape Town, Dubai, London, Toronto and Santiago.

His world recrod is dedicated to raising cash for charity GOAL's work with the poor in war ravaged Darfur in Sudan.

Charity boss John O'Shea said: "Richard has done something truly remarkable. Not only has he set a record that will not be easily beaten but he has also brought much-needed attention to the on-going tragedy in Darfur".

Road warrior Richard began his quest on Saturday in the Russian town of Nova and finished with a time of 4.39.29 in temperatures of minus 20°C.

He then jumped on a plane for South Africa where he ran marathons in Cape Town later that day and Dubai the next morning, meaning he had completed three 42.2km marathons in just two days.

Despite a snow storm in London, Richard completed his fourth marathon there early Monday. And on Thursday he ran the Toronto leg of his challenge. He then did the Santiago marathon before jumping on a plane to Sydney for the final race.

Before he left he said: "I want to run this series of marathons faster than anyone has done before."

©The Irish Sun