Sam Thompson, left, overcame Jermaine A. Ricketts to win Tortola Torture 2026 on Saturday, March 14, 2026. Taking the crown for ladies was the veteran road runner Rosmond Johnson, right. Photo: Tortola Torture

16 athletes took on the Tortola Torture 2026, and two didn’t manage to complete the gruelling course. Photo: Tortola Torture

Jason Turnbull was one of the finishers of Tortola Torture 2026. Photo: Tortola Torture

Tortola Torture 2026 was held a month earlier than previous years in a bid to offset increasingly hotter Aprils. Photo: Tortola Torture

Thompson and Ricketts had a good start to the beginning of the race, running neck and neck in the early dark stage of the race, which started at Tortola Sports Club in Road Town. By the time Ricketts reached the first checkpoint at West End, 10 miles into the race, he was 6 minutes ahead of Thompson and looking strong.

Race leaders suffer cramps

Ricketts was still 3 minutes ahead of Sam coming into the Sage Mountain checkpoint. “Sam was in a very bad way, cramping and hollering for salt from the water stop crew and anyone else unlucky enough to be within earshot. However, he got fixed up by his support crew and his stormy demeanour dissipated to more of a light drizzle for the rest of the race,” according to the Tortola Torture report.

On the descent from Sage Mountain to Brewers Bay, Ricketts started to suffer the same problem with major cramping too. He spent a good 15-20 minutes at Brewer’s Bay “somewhat dejectedly trying to get his legs back to life”.

Salt was hard to come by, but the race crew managed to find some Adobo seasoning in a neighbourhood store, which Ricketts thoroughly enjoyed as he got some salt back into the system.

By this stage, Thompson had overtaken Ricketts and pulled well ahead. He was on his way to setting a personal best in the Tortola Torture. He crossed the line at Jeremy’s Kitchen in Trellis Bay with a time of 5:24:58 – taking a whopping 47 minutes off his winning time of 6:11:37 in 2021.

This was the second time that Thompson had raced the Tortola Torture competitively. In other editions, he has done multiple loops of the course to raise money for animal charity PAW BVI.

De-Vaney overtakes Ricketts for 2nd

Reece De-Vaney, who had been only 5 minutes behind Ricketts at Sage Mountain, overhauled him in Brewer’s Bay while he was being “basted” with Adobo. By the George’s North Side water stop, Ricketts was 30 minutes behind Reece.

Suffering no issues and with a cheer squad that could not be disappointed, Reece finished second (06:19:34) while Ricketts (06:43:34) came in third, having clawed back 10 minutes in the finishing stages of the race.

Johnson runs unchallenged

Johnson won the ladies' race with a time of 7 hours and 50 minutes.

Andrea Henchey (08:49:05) was second.

Tash Ruscheinski, in her tenth Torture entry, ran the race with Haley Parker, who was visiting from the US to do her first Tortola Torture, and they crossed the line together, achieving a joint third place with a time of nine hours and 17 minutes.

Team titles

The two-person team of Sergio Dantas and Sarah Latham put in a good performance, finishing in five hours and 42 minutes. “They both looked pretty fresh and probably could’ve competed individually. Sarah claimed not enough time for training while Sergio is training for the 90km Comrades Marathon in South Africa, and this year’s event was at the wrong stage of his training cycle.”

The team of Sergio Dantas, Shane Donovan and Rhys Warwick won the three-person team category with a time of 6 hours and 37 minutes.

The race was moved a month earlier than previous years in a bid to offset increasingly hotter Aprils. It also started 30 minutes earlier, giving the runners a good solid hour of running in the dark and then a reasonably cool sunrise leg from West End to Sage Mountain.

16 athletes started the race, and two didn’t manage to complete the gruelling course.