The performance was impressive by any standards — a 16-mile cross-country run followed, a few days later, by a 50-mile hike across the Vosges mountains in eastern France.
However, what makes Clément Gass’s exploit all the more remarkable is that he is almost completely blind.
He accomplished the race and the walk using a smartphone app that he says will transform life for the blind in the years to come.
The app, developed by researchers at the Sports Science Department in Strasbourg University, uses GPS coordinates to deliver precise information for partially and non-sighted users, working like a razor-sharp satnav.
“Point 9, go to 11 o’clock for 60 metres and then take a path at 3 o’clock,” was one instruction received by Mr Gass during his run, for instance.
This meant that he had reached the ninth GPS coordinate on the race course (there were 367 in all), that he had to bear slightly left (12 o’clock being straight on and 11 o’clock to the left of that) and then to turn sharp right (3 o’clock) after 60 metres.
The application, called Navi’ Rando, delivered other useful information as well. “When I went over a small bridge over a river, it said: ‘Narrow bridge, slow down’,” Mr Gass, a statistician from Strasbourg, said.
He completed the hike a week later with four other totally or partially blind walkers, following instructions such as “Keep left, ravine to the right”. Mr Gass himself is nearly completely blind, capable of seeing only light and silhouettes. The five walkers took six days to reach their destination, using their smartphones for directions and their white sticks to feel their way.
“No one abandoned, no one got lost, it was a success,” Mr Gass said.
He added that the application had “really opened up the world for me”. “It means I can go everywhere. The most important thing is that it gives us our independence and the impression that you can go on an adventure. Often when you are visually impaired you have to rely on other people and you don’t feel that you are in control of your fate. “With this application, we really can control our fate. You go off on your own, you make your own mistakes and you assume the risks. It means you can have an adventure.”
The project requires the GPS co-ordinates of footpaths and additional information on potential dangers to be put in the system by sighted people.
Laurence Rasseneur, a lecturer at Strasbourg University who is among the inventors of Navi’Rando, said this was a long, painstaking task.