The Middle East’s first ever Urba­nathlon got off to a winning start yesterday at Yas Marina Circuit, with 600 athletes lining up at the start line.

The number of competitors was limited to 600 due to safety con­siderations as it was the inaugural race.

The Urbanathlon event, organ­ised by Men’s Health Middle East and sponsored by Activelife by Daman, saw the runners battling with 17 difficult obstacles that spanned the 10km course, includ­ing having to crawl under an F1 dis­play car, jump into Yas Marina for a 50m swim, swing across monkey bars and climb a three-metre wall, as well as deal with other testing hurdles.

The first prize in the male cat­egory was won by James Bucha­nan, who completed the race in 39 minutes and 39 seconds, while Genevieve Godward won the female category in a time of 49 minutes and 21 seconds.