Spartan 24-hour event leaves just four still standing after ‘borderline impossible’ night of gruelling weights and challenges
- Seven Spartans set out to last 24 hours as organisers throw heavy weights and mind games on knackered participants
Four hardy athletes were left standing on Sam Pak Wan Beach in Discovery Bay after 24 hours of non-stop challenges. The Spartan H3X started at 8am on Saturday morning, and organisers threw exercises and obstacles at the participants, who had set their sights on lasting an entire day.
Other participants had signed up for four or 12 hours, but just seven were mad enough to attempt the full 24 hours. The HX3 was going on simultaneously in Hong Kong, China, Philippines, USA, Austria and Slovakia.
Each of the Spartans were completing the same exercises around the world, like sandbag carries, weighted ruck sacks runs, crawls and even mind games, like having to remember a shape, go on a run and identify the same shape on their return – no easy task in the early hours of the morning after 18 hours of exercise.
The four who made the full 24 hours were Robin Sung-yip Lo, Ellen Hai-yee Lun, Melvin James and Rami Hage Ali.
Race organiser Max Lai said that the main issue for the three who did not reach the end was the weight of the carrying challenges. The 15kg ruck sacks for women, 20kg for men, with all their gear too, or the 18kg and 25kg sandbags proved too much for some.