Geeno Antony sets new course record for the 90 km-race at Ooty Ultra

Ultrarunner Geeno Antony set a new course record for the 90-kilometre-race at the 2024 edition of Ooty Ultra, held on March 31, 2024.

He finished the 90 km distance in nine hours, 52 minutes and 24 seconds, a new course record. The previous best finish timing for 90 km race at the event was 10:29:11, set by the winner of the 2023 edition, Sugourav Goswami.

“ It is a superb event in every respect – the route, the hydration support, volunteers. I did not know it would be so good. There was hydration support every four km,” Geeno Antony said.

The route was a constant progression of inclines and declines, sometimes very steep, he said.

According to information on the Ooty Ultra website, the 90 km race route has a total elevation gain of 2642 metres.

“ Weather was slightly cool in the early hours of the race. It did get quite warm later,” Geeno said.

New course records were set for both the men’s and women’s 30 km race. The men’s race was won by Josh Fisher of Australia (2:33:38). The women’s race was won by Tim Tim Sharma (2:48:47).

The 60 km men’s race was won by Paras Khushalani (6:02:10) and the women’s by Dolly (8:14:49). Paras holds the course record for the 60 km race (5:52:02) set during the 2023 edition of Ooty Ultra.

(The author, Latha Venkatraman, is an independent journalist based in Mumbai)