ADELAIDE. Oct 9: One-legged English ultra-marathoner Chris Moon ran into Arkaroola here late Thursday to finish a five-day 250-kilometre (155 miles) run through the Flinders Ranges, reports AFP.

Moon, who had his right leg and right arm blown off while clearing landmines in Mozambique three years ago. said the run. which took him on a circuitous route around Lake Frome. was tougher than running 143 kilometre (89 miles) across the Sahara desert.

But it was good training for his next goal — running across Death Valley in California — to raise funds for charity group AustCare.

"The whole thing was much harder than I thought it would be because of the temperatures, because of the distance and because of the hardness of the ground. It was very stony." he said.

"Il was really quite a challenge ... but I can comfortably say having been here that it’s very big and incredibly beautiful."

Moon said the stump of his leg was "shredded” after the five days of running. He was close to stopping on the third day because he had trouble getting his artificial leg on. but giving up was never an option because he wanted to "challenge the concept of limitations.’’

Moon, who works for the anti-landmine charity supported by the late Princess Diana, and his running partner John Bryant, the deputy editor of London newspaper The Times, ran about nine hours a day across a variety of terrain to raise about 100.000 dollars (62.000 US) for AustCare.

Moon, who took part in the 1998 Nagano Winter Olympics torch run. said he would like to make the ultra-marathon an annual fund-raising event but would have to speak to local landowners and find out more about local land rights issues to see whether the route would hav^ to be changed.