Monger to tackle 140-mile triathlon for Comic Relief

Double amputee Billy Monger has announced he is training to complete a 140-mile triathlon to raise money for Comic Relief.

Monger lost both his legs after colliding with a static car during a British F4 race at Donington Park in 2017. The 21-year-old has since returned to racing and took victory in the 2019 Pau Grand Prix while racing in the Euroformula Open championship.

Not afraid to challenge himself, Monger will hike, cycle and kayak the 140-mile distance across four days.

"This is, for me, definitely the toughest physical challenge that I have had to take on in my life," Monger told BBC Breakfast.

"Learning how to walk and becoming a double amputee was hard enough, then tackling something to this scale - I'm pushing myself quite hard to say the least. I've thrown myself in at the deep end."

He added: "I haven't ridden a bike since my accident, so when this got thrown on my lap in the middle of December, I hadn't ridden a bike for over four years.

"I didn't know whether it would be, one, possible to ride a bike and, two, the distance that I have got to go is quite a lot."

Indicating the scale of the task ahead of him, Monger explained the furthest he has walked in one go, since the accident, is six kilometres [3.7 miles]. As well as not having cycled since 2017, he had never previously kayaked before beginning his training.

"The water is absolutely freezing," he added. "I had to do, as part of the safety for the challenge, I had to do a rollover where I go upside down in the water and make sure I could get out of the kayak safely.

"That was the first time in my life I have ever been so cold and the shock from the water was on another level."

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