A former Farnham resident has completed the gruelling 2024 Ultraman Canada.

George Hellyer, who lived in Farnham for 20 years and currently works in Dubai, finished in third place in this year’s event.

The Ultraman is a three-day event, which consists of a 10km swim, 420km cycle and an 84.4km run.

The first day consisted of the 10km swim and a 145km cycle, the second day consisted of a 275km cycle and the third day consisted of the 84.4km run.

Hellyer completed the event in a total time of 29:45.36, having completed the swim in 3:30.52, the 145km cycle in 5:43.35, the 275km cycle in 10:01.45 and the run in 10:17.44.

This year’s Ultraman Canada wasn’t Hellyer’s first long-distance event.

Hellyer said: “I did an Ironman in 2021 and did it again in 2022. I then had a pretty big knee surgery where I was in bed for the best part of six weeks and had a big brace on for ten weeks.

“The rehab was basically a year, so in order to motivate myself to get up and do all the rehab I thought Ultraman Canada would be a pretty good thing to do.

“It was very different to the Ironman races because they have lots of volunteers, lots of aid stations and closed roads. You can only be supported by two people for the Ultraman Canada, so I was supported by my partner Hazel Mackey and my friend Christian Jason.

“The Ultraman has been running since 1993 and has only had about 2,000 finishers. It's capped at 40 people. You have to apply and say what your credentials are, because they can't have anyone turning up and doing a race that long.”