He is now close to the peaks of the Alps or those of Reunion Island, but it was in Belle-Île-en-Mer that Maël Samzun started running. Born in 1992, he remembers the first two Belle-Ile trails which he attended as a spectator then, in 2012, he launched into the 13 km.
“I had suffered a lot,” he remembers. He held on and entered the 44 km in a following edition, then the 83 km in 2018. He finished sixteenth! When he was young, he weighed up to 92 kg. “I was sedentary,” says the man who still played rugby and cycling in Belle-Ile, then football during his studies. He has lost a lot of weight since then, and gained endurance…
Engaged in Alpine hunters
With his professional baccalaureate in landscape work, he began working the seasons in the mountains as a poleman, first of all, then he took the State Certificate to become a ski patroller. He follows the Bellilois there who spend the seasons but he settles there. He joined the Alpine hunters in 2017. “Out of a desire to be of service,” he explains, and because “we are often in the mountains.” A member of the “mountain commandos”, he was sent to Mali for two “mandates” of four months. “I lost a comrade in combat,” recalls the man who has since become an instructor for new recruits.
20th in the Diagonale des fous!
In 2024, the runner from Bellilois reached a milestone: 20th in the Diagonale des fous, a crazy race which crosses Reunion. 182 km in 30 h 42. 2,839 participants at the finish. Jungle, mud, sugar cane fields, mountains and “splendid” landscapes. “I restricted myself throughout the race and I was not exhausted at the finish,” remembers the Breton, coached by another Breton, Christophe Malardé, from Inguiniel, near Lorient, a former professional runner with whom he exchange on the internet. Because training cannot be improvised: six weeks before a race, you must train intensely, then take a rest two weeks before, in order to “arrive fresh” at the start.
New peaks to climb
In 2024, Maël Samzun won the EDF Val-Cenis trail (78 km). In 2025, he will participate in “L’école belle”, in the Belledonne massif. That is 152 km and approximately 11,000 meters of elevation gain. And the Ultra marine, in Vannes? Too flat for Maël who is looking for “nervous” and mountainous routes. He plans to return to Belle-Île-en-Mer, however, in 2026, to participate in the trail again.
Another summit perhaps awaits Maël Samzun: becoming a professional. He has not given up on climbing it but “we need to confirm,” he says. He is on the right track.
