Karel Sabbe Demolishes ‘Te Araroa’ FKT

Eszter Horanyi reports for iRunFar:

After 31 days, 19 hours, and 41 minutes, Belgian Karel Sabbe arrived at the end of the Te Araroa (TA) trail in Bluff, New Zealand, the southernmost point of the South Island, setting a massive new men’s supported fastest known time (FKT) on the 1,898-mile (3,054-kilometer) trail. He reached the famous signpost at Stirling Point just before midnight on February 16, 2025.

This route is technical, with river crossings and other challenges, and Sabbe took over 17.5 days off the previous record. Of course, a massively long and difficult route in a remote region hasn’t seen as much attention, so from a competitive perspective it wasn’t that hard to best the previous time, but this is taking nothing away from this incredible feat. Will be interesting how long it stands as there are a couple others on that trail at the very moment.