Kilian Jornet already has his 'Flu Game': victory and record in the UTMB with a positive in Covid

"If I go past my heart rate threshold, I start to notice that in my lungs."

, in conversation with his team.

It was the provisioning station at

, in

.

He had run 126 kilometers and still had 45 to go. In

's career there are incredible victories, unique feats, unthinkable adventures, but nothing can compare with the success achieved this Sunday in the

(

), the best race world mountain.

He won, yes.

He won for the fourth time (2008, 2009 and 2011) and after 10 years without doing it, yes.

But mostly he won ill.

The impossible.

How to run 171 kilometers and 10,000 meters of unevenness with a virus on top?

How to do it at a breakneck pace, in less than 20 hours, a border that was believed insurmountable?

Only Jornet knows.

A couple of weeks ago, her partner, fellow runner

, announced that she had tested positive for

and that this would change her calendar.

Jornet, despite this, declared that he had tested negative at all times, that he had no symptoms.

But he ran his last race before the UTMB, the

Swiss

Dizziness, cramps... he finished fifth.

Then came his positive and a recovery process that had not finished when the Spaniard took the start of the UTMB in Chamonix, in France, a town dedicated to his figure.

His performance was unknown.

If the bad feelings returned it would be very difficult to compete for almost a whole day with a bad body.

And the bad feelings came.

And Jornet despite everything endured and won.

None of his rivals were able to defeat him and that some, like the American

, had even changed their residence -from the United States to France-, their routine, their life to try.

As always, Jornet was not the fastest at all times, but he was the most consistent, the one who was best known.

Hence his statements to his team.

If he kept up the pace, he held on, despite the Covid.

If not, he would have ended up retiring.

Up to three opponents tried to break him and no one succeeded.

From the outset, the Spaniard

, winner in 2019, came out untamed, at a very high pace, hoping to take the pack of favorites with him, but there was no response.

In the end, heartbroken, he gave up.

Kilian

, the man called to beat him, demarched during the night and opened a gap of more than 15 minutes behind him.

But he, too, was exhausted.

And in the end the Frenchman

got to pair up with Jornet and they traveled several kilometers together until the Spaniard, at the exit of the Vallorcine aid station, decided that the competition was over.

Alone, happy, he allowed himself a mass swim at the finish line in

, where he lived for several years before moving to Norway.

Alone, happy, he confirmed that in the mountains there has not been and will not be an athlete like him.

A legend, from this Sunday even bigger.

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