Every year, more than 800 runners compete to see if they can beat a horse over marathon distance.

Yes, you heard that correctly. Over a distance of approximately 22 miles and hilly terrain, runners will be running directly against horses and their riders in the market town of Llanwrtyd Wells.

This year, six Olympians are competing: Jason Kenny, Britain’s most successful Olympic cyclist; Sam Cross, GB Sevens silver medalist and Wales international; Heather Fisher, English 15s and 7s player who represented GB at Rio in 2016; Shona McCallin, gold medalist at hockey in Rio; Mohamed Sbihi, gold and bronze medal winning rower and flag bearer for Tokyo 2020; and Gareth Warburton, middle distance runner who appeared at London 2012.

Kenny, Cross, and Fisher are competing together for Team Crunchy, while McCallin, Sbihi, and Warburton are together in Team Smooth. Both teams will be aiming to win the relay part of the competition.

One may imagine it is impossible to beat a horse over any distance, let alone 22 miles, but four people have done it in the event’s history.

Last year, Daniel Connolly beat the first placed horse with a time of two hours, 24 minutes and 38 seconds, beating DNS Ronaldo, who was ridden by Kate Atkinson, by just under ten minutes.

Connolly joins original winner Huw Lobb (2004), Florien Holzinger (2007), and Ricky Lightfoot (2022) in the pantheon of Man vs Horse champions.

This year, humanity is looking to make it a hattrick of victories over their equine foes, as the humans slowly win back their athletic dignity after years of failure.

The event began in 1980, making Huw Lobb’s achievement all the more impressive, as the early years were horse dominated.

The idea came about following a chat over a pint in the Neuadd Arms Hotel in 1980, where the then Landlord, Gordon Green, overheard two men discussing the relative merits of men and horses running over mountainous terrain.

The enterprising Green, never one to miss an opportunity to promote Llanwrtyd Wells and improve business at his hotel, decided to put it to the test. And so began Green Events and its first, longest standing and now internationally acclaimed event, Man v Horse.

The course was changed in 1982 to provide a more even match between the man and the horse, resulting year on year in very close finishes – sometimes with the horse winning by only a few seconds.

There is a cash prize for the winner, starting at £500, escalates each year a horse wins by a further £500. The first jackpot received by Huw Lobb had reached £25,000 before being won by the inaugural champion.

Throughout its 44-year run, Man vs Horse has expanded to events in Scotland at Dores, near Loch Ness, in New Zealand, and in Prescott, Arizona.

Organiser of the event Bob Greenough was surprised that the last two winners have been runners.

“It’s the first time the event has been won two years in a row by a runner, and only the fourth time overall in 42 years of the race,” he said.

“It was an incredibly hot day today. The event went remarkably well. Everyone was in very good spirits.”