Dubai's Spartan Race in Hatta: thousands crawl in mud in gruelling obstacle course - in pictures

Competitors crawl under barbed wire during the Spartan Race in Hatta, Dubai. All photos by Leslie Pableo for The National

Participants finish the race by jumping over fire.

The field queues at one of the obstacles.

Racers climb over net.

Racers swing across bars.

The race was held in Hatta.

There were three races.

The 5km sprint for all levels of fitness...

The gruelling 13 kilometre super challenge...

...And the 3.2km race for 'mini-Spartans'

4,500 participants took part.

Participants crawl under barbed wire.

The runners jump into a ditch.

Participants crawl under barbed wire.

Three female competitors pose after completing the race.

Competitors jumped through fire, crawled under barbed wire and ran through mud and water in the XDubai Spartan Race on Friday.

The gruelling 25-obstacle race took place over a 13 kilometre course in Hatta in the Dubai emirate. However there was a 5km sprint over 20 obstacles for fitness fans of all levels.

Elite athletes stood shoulder to shoulder with the weekend warriors at the latest incarnation of the XDubai spartan race in Hatta mountains.

More than 4,500 people turned out to take on the gruelling 13 kilometre super challenge and the shorter 5km sprint, with ages ranging from 4 to 60.

A children’s race was held to encourage youngsters aged between four and 14 to take on the challenge, scrambling over obstacles on a 3.2km course.

This month is the Dubai Fitness Challenge.  Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, called for every resident to take part in 30 minutes of exercise for 30 days.

The challenge began on October 26 and ends on November 24.

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Othmane Safi from Abu Dhabi came out on top of the men’s Elite Super Spartan category with a time of 1 hour 12 minutes, with Zuzana Kocumova from the Czech Republic, who came first with a time of 1 hour 27 minutes.

Russian Sergey Perelygin was the quickest over the sprint course with a time of 30 minutes and 25 seconds.

“Spartans of all ages ran, climbed, crawled and conquered the natural as well as man-made obstacles in their paths and emerged champions,” said Mohammed Javad, General Manager of XDubai.

“The race showed us the calibre of the region’s athletes, the uniting power of sports with teams working together to cross the finish line and the huge potential of our young Spartans.”