EXCITEMENT is growing in the Flora 1,000 Mile Challenge and not just because the competitors reached the halfway mark yesterday. How many of the remaining five will make it to the finish is the first question. Then there are others to be answered. Like who will win? And when is Elle MacPherson coming?

In one of sport’s least likely sponsorship deals, the supermodel known as “The Body” is backing Sharon Gayter, who could run the length of a thousand catwalks. Gayter is Great Britain’s No 1 woman 24-hour runner — her best distance in that time is 136 miles — and one of six who started the Challenge. Another, Lloyd Scott, dropped out eight days ago.

“She pays for all the kit I want and she paid my way to Australia for warm-weather training,” Gayter said. “She has rung me twice during the Challenge and, believe it or not, she says she is going to visit me at some stage.”

David Lake, a platoon commander in the Royal Welch Fusiliers and one of three men remaining, has promised to make MacPherson welcome. “The bunk that Lloyd left next to me is free for Elle or any other available supermodel,” Lake said.

The participants must cover one mile in each of the 1,000 hours, up and down the London Marathon course.Those who complete the feat in the early hours of April 13 must then line up that morning in the London Marathon. First man and woman across the line are the winners.

Gayter is being helped by daily massage from husband, Bill, and it was through her work as a masseuse that she met MacPherson.

“I live in Guisborough and Elle was in the North East hosting a weekend in a castle,” Gayter said. “I massaged her and her guests. She found out I was a runner and asked me who my sponsor was. When I said I did not have one she said: ‘We’ll have to do something about that’.”