Ryan Sandes

Ryan Sandes, nicknamed Hedgie and born on 10 March 1982 in Cape Town, is a South African trail runner. In 2010 he became the first competitor to win all four of the 4 Deserts races, each a six or seven day, 250 kilometre self-supported footrace through the Atacama, Gobi and Sahara deserts and Antarctica. He won the 2011 Leadville Trail 100, the 2012 North Face 100 in Australia and, in 2014, the Transgrancanaria, and in 2017 he won the Western States Endurance Run in 16 hours 19 minutes 37 seconds. With Ryno Griesel he set fastest known times on the Drakensberg Grand Traverse in 2014 and on the Great Himalaya Trail in 2018. He studied construction and later quantity surveying at the University of Cape Town.