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August 27, Kokoda 22 Hour Challenge 2006:
A PNG trekking porter has run the gruelling Kokoda Track in less than 18 hours, slashing over four hours off the record for the famed wartime trek made famous by Australian Diggers.
Brendan Buka, 22, faced tough competition in this weekend's annual Kokoda challenge from Sydney engineer Damon Goerke, 32, who led for much of the steep 96km course.
Buka crossed the finishing line just before 1am (0100 AEST) today in a time of 17 hours, 49 minutes and 17 seconds, followed in by another PNG porter Wayne Urina just over an hour later.
Goerke became the first Australian to finish the track in under 24 hours, coming third with a time of 19 hours, 28 minutes and 48 seconds from Owers' Corner to Kokoda.
Last year's record of 22 hours, one minute and 14 seconds was set by PNG trekking guide John Hunt Hiviki, 33, in the opposite direction.
Hundreds of Kokoda residents welcomed the lead runners who, finishing well ahead of 40 other competitors, were cheered and hoisted on shoulders.
Buka was today nursing swollen feet but consoled himself with his 10,000 kina ($4,650) prize.
He said at one point he felt he couldn't continue, but had a wash in a stream which refreshed him and gave him the impetus to go on, eventually seeing Goerke's headlamp disappear behind him in the dark.
Goerke, a seasoned endurance runner, said he trained for the race on hills around Sydney but found it horrendously tough on the track which trekkers usually take seven to eight days to walk.
"That would be the toughest run I've ever done. Those hills are just incredible. I just didn't have enough for the second half of the race, I used up all the fuel in the first half."
The two other Australian entrants this year were brothers Sean and Bryan O'Hara who finished together in just under 27.5 hours after Sean, 32, found himself spent and in pain eight hours into the race.
His brother, 29, elected to stay with him and towed Sean up mountainsides using a length of bush vine to get him to the finish.
Sean, a publican at the Nag's Head in Glebe, said he had been in a lot of pain for 20 hours and couldn't have done it without his brother.
"I was spent and he stayed with me. I was holding onto a stick for hours on end and he was towing me up."
His brother, who works in Hong Kong, had run marathons in the Sahara and China and might have done the Kokoda in 20 hours if he had gone on alone, Sean said.
Photograph: Lancelot and Bryan O'Hara at the commencement of the race down the first hill at Ower's Corner:
0_1658_5226829_00.jpgPNG local sets new Kokoda track record – Source ABC
By PNG Correspondent Steve Marshall
A new race record has been set on the Kokoda track in Papua New Guinea this weekend.
A local man from Kokoda village has covered the 96-kilometre track in less than 18 hours.
Forty-three runners – including three Australians – set off from the southern end of the track for the village of Kokoda in the north.
Their target was to beat last year's record of 22 hours set by a local man.
After 17 hours and 49 minutes it was another local who emerged King Of Kokoda.
Track porter Brendan Buka averaged five kilometres and hour over the track's excruciating ups and daunting downs to pick up the $5,000 winner's purse.
Sydneysider Damon Goerk also beat last year's record by two-and-half hours to claim third place overall.
Photograph: Brendan Buka a few minutes after he came home in Kokoda in 17 hours 49 minutes and 17 seconds:
Brendan___ABC.jpg
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