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Billy Monger takes on 140-mile Comic Relief challenge

Comic Relief Monger in the gymComic Relief
Billy Monger said training had provided a goal to focus on during lockdown

A racing driver who had both legs amputated after a crash is to walk, cycle and kayak 140 miles (225km) in four days for Comic Relief.

Billy Monger was critically injured in an accident in 2017 aged 16, but was back behind the wheel within a year.

He is set to start on 22 February, finishing at the Brands Hatch circuit.

The 21-year-old, from Charlwood, in Surrey, said the journey would be the "toughest physical challenge I've ever had to take on in my life".

"Learning how to walk and becoming a double amputee was hard enough, but tackling something to this scale... I'm pushing myself quite hard to say the least," he added.

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Before training began in December, he had not ridden a bike since his accident and had not walked more than 6km (3.7 miles) at a time, he said.

"Now I've got to do a marathon distance in a walk, so I'm upping the game here a bit for me."

Comic Relief Monger trains in a kayakComic Relief
Monger had never used a kayak before training began for the Comic Relief challenge

Training for the three-sport event had provided a welcome goal to focus on during lockdown, he said.

"In a lot of ways it's been the absolute perfect scenario," he said.

"Not being able to compete and race during 2020, and what's looking like 2021 potentially as well due to the pandemic, it's been really tough to not have that focus.

"This is going to put me in the best shape I've ever been in my life."

Monger returned to racing in 2018 after appealing to motorsport's international governing body, the FIA, to change its regulations restricting disabled drivers.

He won the Euroformula series Pau Grand Prix in 2019.