Nepal Army’s Bed Bahadur Sunuwar has won the world’s highest marathon on Mount Everest- an annual even to mark the anniversary of the first summit of the peak by Tenzing Norgay and Edmund Hillary in 1953. The Nepali soldier won the Full Marathon Open and the same team’s Tirtha Bahadur Tamang notched first place in the Ultra Marathon Open category held on Sunday (May 29, 2016).
Sunuwar was one of more than 150 local and foreign runners in the race, which began from the Everest Base Camp near the Khumbu Glacier. The 29-year-old man completed the race covering the distance of about 42.195 km further down the slopes, in four hours and 10 seconds while Tamang took six hours, 36 minutes and 13 seconds to complete the 60 km distance of the extreme ultra marathon.
Around 30 local runners were joined by about 130 from around the world, including the UK, US, China and Australia.
The 14th edition is the first climbing season on Everest after two seasons hit by disasters – an avalanche that killed 16 mountain guides in 2014, and a fatal earthquake in 2015. However, the 2016 season has not been sans tragedy, with several deaths from altitude sickness during a particularly busy period on the peak. On Friday, officials announced they had found the body of an Indian climber on the upper slopes, taking the season’s death toll to four.
