Two female athletes are battling for their life after they suffered burns of up to 80 per cent on their bodies when they were trapped in a bushfire near El Questro station. They were among the participants to the 100-kilometre Kimberley Ultramarathon held on Friday afternoon.

The two women runners who are in critical condition and confined in two different hospitals in Sydney and Melbourne are aged 24 and 35. Two other male participants, aged 56 and 44, were also injured but are in stable condition at the Royal Perth Hospital.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the four victims were among the five competitors who were trapped in a narrow gorge when the grass fire quickly approached them from the back. Some of the marathoners tried to climb up the steep ridges to escape from being burned, but their only way out was to outrun the blaze.

The four were initially rushed to Kununurra Hospital then airlifted to Darwin Hospital. One of the injured female athletes, 24-year-old Turia Pitt from Ulladulla, was eventually brought to Concord Hospital in Sydney where she had two surgeries and was taken off a ventilator on Sunday evening.

The other injured female runner is 36-year-old Kate Sanderson from Victoria. The two male marathoners had 20 per cent burns on their bodies.

Samantha Fanshawe, organiser of the Racing the Planet event, said it is investigating how the four runners were trapped by the bushfire which they were informed had no chance of occurring during the three-day race.

However, the Sydney Morning Herald said the weather bureau issued fire warnings for the Kimberley region on Friday. The weather forecast for Friday was winds of up to 30 km/h and temperature of 35 degrees Celsius.

The blaze and the incident made the organizers abandon the ultramarathon hours after it started on Friday. Ms. Fanshawe insisted that Racing the Planet did not receive any warning of fire prior to the ultramarathon, otherwise they would have canceled it or changed the route.