What a picture-perfect event day! After the long lead-up, the Jabulani Challenge 2024 delivered in style!
The mist was still rolling off the water at Empire Marina as more than 700 runners made their way to the Event Centre in the early hours of Saturday morning.
As the 21st year of the Jabulani Challenge this event has a long and proud history, year after year runners have come together to run the stunning trails of the Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park. The extensive trail network is beautiful, green, technical and challenging; all the things that fill a trail runner’s cup. The podiums for all categories saw impressively fast times and all runners should be congratulated on their efforts.
In the 12 km, 1st place was awarded to, Lachlan Jones for the males and Nicole Bourke for the females. The 22 km course saw Pearce Brezmen as the first male runner home and Sara Levett the first female runner home. In the 45 km course, the 1st place male was Josef Mcgrath and the female top spot was convincingly won by Bridie Temple, 50 minutes ahead of 2nd place. View all the official race times and positions HERE.
The crew from Outer Image Photography were out on course snapping some great shots, check them out HERE.
There were many trail stories from the day and we love to celebrate them, there were many runners attempting their longest ever trail runs, plenty of colourful run clubs taking on the challenge together, some international runners logging a holiday race and an impressive amount of first timers to trail running taking on the course.
A big shout out to the 35 volunteers who lent a hand for the day, generously giving their time and energy. It’s a long course and we need a lot of people to cover the distance and the roles required to make the event run smoothly.
A big thanks also goes out to our sponsors and supporters, Tailwind Nutrition for stocking our aid stations on course. Tarkine the epic Aussie shoe brand forging a path in sustainable footwear. NORT beer, how sweet were those alcohol-free finisher beers?, and CREST radio services.
Finally, a massive thanks to every runner for being a part of the day, thanks for running with us, we hope to see you soon at another Max Adventure event!
