Sabrina Verjee on her way to victory. Photo: Harhsarn Gill

Sabrina Verjee has won the Montane Spine Fusion endurance race, the first woman outright winner of the event.

The 38-year-old runner completed the course, along the full 268-mile length of the Pennine Way, leading from start to finish.

The victory for Verjee completes a female double for the winter and summer Spine Race events, after Jasmin Paris’s win the January Montane Spine Race.

Verjee touched the wall at the finishing point at the Border Hotel in Kirk Yetholm 82hrs 19mins 7secs after leaving the start in Edale.

She ran the last 109km or so on her own, after Cees van der Land was forced to withdraw. The leading male athlete, Esteban Díaz Castañeda completed the course over eight hours later in a time of 89hrs 57mins 12secs.

Runners in the event faced testing conditions at times with rain, low cloud and reduced visibility in higher areas affecting the latter stages of her race. Verjee had to contend with gale force winds over the Cheviots.

Her finish time is the fastest recorded time for a female athlete, beating the previous women’s summer record by nearly 48hrs. The overall course record was set by Mark Denby in 2018 with a time of 78hrs 4mins 14secs. The winter record for the course is held by Jasmin Paris in 83hrs 12mins 23secs, set in 2019.

Verjee said: “Right now I feel OK, pretty good, very happy.

“It’s a shame Cees wasn’t there with me at the finish, but I have the win outright now.

“Over the Cheviots there were gale force winds; it was terrible up there. But it was the only way I was staying awake. I would just doze off and be facing the other way at times and think where have I been for the last half hour?”

Sabrina Verjee at Kirk Yetholm with her winner's medal. Photo: Montane Spine Race

Race director Scott Gilmour said: “It was remarkable to follow Sabrina during the race and appreciate first-hand why she is so highly regarded within the running community.

“She was in total control throughout the race and her win is highly deserved, although I do have a slight feeling of déjà vu.”

Earlier in the week Benjamin Tyas came home in first place on the Montane Spine Flare, run between Edale in the Peak District and Hardraw in the Yorkshire Dales, with a time of 27hrs 41mins 21secs, followed by Adam Gamble and Tom Couldwell in joint second place.

Saki Nakamura was the first-place female completing the course in 32hrs 11mins 22secs with fellow competitors Sue Howarth and Susan Clapham shortly behind. By coincidence both sets of second-placed competitors crossed the line together, resulting in equal second place finishes in the male and female categories.

Two runners representing the race’s official charity the National Ankylosing Spondylitis Society started the event.

Raj Mahapatra was diagnosed with ankylosing spondylitis in 1993, when a consultant told him that due to the state he was in at the time, he should expect to be in a wheelchair within 10 years.

Gerry Dance was diagnosed in 1990, after almost 10 years of severe back and hip pain. He was told that AS would fuse his neck, spine and hips. Dance cannot manage without daily medication but knew instinctively that he must continue to try to run to combat the fusion. He retired from the race at Greenhead almost five days after starting in Derbyshire.

At the time of writing, Mahapatra had reached Byrness just south of the Cheviots.