[Editor’s Note: This article was written by guest columnist Clare Gunton.]
François D’Haene (France) is once again the men’s supported fastest known time holder on Corsica’s GR20 trail. On July 9, 2026, he reclaimed the record with a time of 29 hours, 46 minutes, and 20 seconds, improving on the time set in 2021 by France’s Lambert Santelli by just over 40 minutes. Prior to Santelli, D’Haene had held the fastest known time (FKT) on the route since 2016 with a time of 31 hours and 6 minutes.
François D’Haene on his way to setting a new FKT on the GR20 in Corsica. All photos courtesy of François D’Haene.
The GR20 traverses Corsica, a mountainous French island in the Mediterranean Sea, diagonally from the northwest to the southeast. Often referred to as Europe’s toughest long-distance trail, it is known for its rugged and highly technical terrain. The route is approximately 100 miles (160 kilometers) long with about 40,000 feet (12,000 meters) of total elevation gain. After assembling his crew in Corsica and waiting a few days for a good weather window, D’Haene started his journey from Calenzana at 4:30 a.m. on the morning of July 8 and finished in Conca at 10:16 a.m. the following day.
This was D’Haene’s third trip on the GR20. He first hiked it in 2006 with his wife in classic thru-hiking style before setting his FKT in 2016. Since then, Santelli, a Corsican local, had been the only one to better D’Haene’s record.
D’Haene traverses one of the many technical sections of the GR20 with his pacer.
D’Haene is one of the most accomplished trail runners in the world, particularly in mountainous 100-mile races. In 2021, he won the Hardrock 100, setting the still-standing record for the counterclockwise direction, and also won UTMB for the fourth time. He also finished second at the Western States 100 in 2018 and has won the Diagonale des Fous four times. D’Haene has also pursued other competitive FKTs, holding the men’s supported FKT on the 223-mile (360 kilometers) John Muir Trail in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains since 2017. Last year, he set the then men’s supported FKT on the approximately 100-mile (160 kilometers) Nolan’s 14 route in Colorado’s Sawatch mountains in 35 hours and 33 minutes, although the record has since been broken by David Hedges.
Unlike his Nolan’s 14 FKT journey last year, during which he provided no public live-tracking or social media updates while it was happening, D’Haene’s Instagram account kept his fans frequently updated on his GR20 progress, providing high-quality imagery of him moving through the beautiful scenery and passing through his crewed pit stops. His crew was composed of friends and family, including his wife and children, and he seemed to have multiple pacers with him most, if not all, of the time. His children even joined him as pacers for a few miles along the trail. Corsica has been experiencing a heat wave like many other parts of Europe, and when the temperatures rose in the heat of the day, he used bandanas and hats filled with ice to keep cool.
D’Haene endured the heat on his crossing of the GR20 trail.
The GR20 has recently been named one of the Fastest Known Time website’s premier routes for Europe, for its rich competitive history. The FKT is still pending official verification, but D’Haene’s route can be viewed on his Strava account, though the kilometer splits are currently hidden. In an Instagram post after securing the FKT, D’Haene wrote, “Ten years after my first record here, 20 years after my very first ultra-trail back in 2006, and as I am 40, knowing that I still have that deep hunger inside, that pure joy of taking on this trail … that is undoubtedly what matters most to me.”
Even at 40 years old, D’Haene still has the hunger for big efforts.
