With the 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships simply days away, beginning this Friday, December 1, in Taipei, we’re wanting again on the 140-plus-year historical past of the 24-hour world report and its development to this weekend’s beginning line. The present 24-hour world report holders, Alexander Sorokin and Camille Herron, are planning to race, and we’ll be in search of challenges from them and others to the present report marks.
Ultrarunning has its roots in what’s known as pedestrianism, the game of overlaying very lengthy distances over lengthy intervals of time by strolling and working, which emerged the late seventeenth century in England. Amongst their many occasions, the pedestrians took half in staged indoor six-day races, mixing strolling and working to cowl huge distances.
The primary credible recorded 24-hour end was by one of many nice pedestrians of the late nineteenth century, Charles Rowell, at one such occasion. Rowell is credited with overlaying over 530 miles in a single such six-day race. In a six-day race in 1882, he’s credited with overlaying 150 miles within the first 24 hours of the occasion — the primary time 150 miles (241 kilometers) was damaged.
It could be virtually 100 extra years earlier than we might have a ratifiable girls’s report. Though there have been anecdotal studies of a feminine runner finishing 106 miles in a 24-hour occasion within the distant previous, the primary recorded distance on the DUV Extremely Marathon Statistics web site is by the American Marcy Schwam. She ran in the 1979 David Copperfield 48-Hour Observe Ultramarathon in Woodside, California, and recorded 113.671 miles (182.937 kilometers). This appears to be the primary recorded and ratified feminine 24-hour world report of contemporary occasions.
Within the years that adopted, each information have been steadily improved upon as new generations of athletes push the boundaries of what’s potential. Within the steadiness of this text, we’ll dive deep into the development of the 24-hour world report from these beginning factors.
Marcy Schwam, who set the primary recorded girls’s 24-hour report in 1979. Photograph: Sri Chinmoy Marathon Crew
The Historical past and Evolution of the Males’s 24-Hour World File
Fifty Years Later
Now we have to go ahead to 1931, when the legendary Arthur Newton of England achieved a distance of 152.306 miles (245.113k). The five-time Comrades Marathon winner ran that on an indoor observe in Ontario, Canada.
Wally Haywood, 1953
Quick ahead one other 20 years to 1953, and Newton was instrumental with the U.Okay. Roadrunners Membership in staging a 24-hour race on the Motspur Park cinder observe in Surrey, England. South African Wally Hayward, one other multiple-time Comrades Marathon winner, turned the primary runner to interrupt the 250k barrier, working 159.319 miles (256.4k).
Wally Hayward (left) with Arthur Newton on the Roadrunners Membership 24-hour race in November 1953. Photograph: U.Okay. Roadrunners Membership
Ron Bentley, 1973
The U.Okay. Roadrunners Membership organized a number of 100-mile and 24-hour observe races all through this time. In 1973, Ron Bentley from the well-known Tipton Harriers membership ran 161.309 miles (259.603k), simply lacking 260k, however going by the imperial 160-mile mark for the primary time. Like Hayward’s report, this was run on a cinder observe at Walton-on-Thames, England.
Park Barner, 1979
Via the late Nineteen Seventies and early Eighties, a resurgence of 100-mile and 24-hour races befell. The U.Okay. nonetheless had annual occasions, however now these have been being replicated in Europe and the U.S. Beforehand, the report had been damaged with lengthy gaps of typically 20 years between them. Over the following three years, the report would fall on 5 events.
The USA was the venue for the following enchancment in 1979. American Park Barner was one of the crucial outstanding American ultrarunners of the time and, like many of the earlier record-breakers, simply cherished working. Their refreshing perspective is greatest summed up in Barner’s remark in a single interview: “I nonetheless don’t really feel like I’m primary. I really feel the identical method I did once I began working significantly in 1968. I attempt to not let something have an effect on me. I don’t want trophies or wine or something. It’s one thing I take pleasure in doing. It makes me really feel good. I really feel like a child.”
Barner ran 162.304 miles (261.204k), rising the report by a mile.
The French Connection and A File-Breaking Brit
It was again to Europe, and an rising French ultrarunner, Jean-Gilles Boussiquet, improved the report twice within the house of eight months. Blackburn within the north of England was the venue for an occasion in October 1980, the place the Frenchman pushed the report out to 164.109 miles (264.108k).
Clearly attending to grips with the trials of the occasion, the next Might, in 1981, he took up the problem once more. In an occasion in Lausanne, Switzerland, he added an extra 8k (5 miles) to develop into the primary runner break the 270k barrier. He completed with 169.400 miles (272.624k).
Now, these 24-hour races have been spreading. Within the west of England, the native Gloucester Athletic Membership had a bunch of very competent ultrarunners. Using the wave, they organized an occasion at their native observe in 1982. A number of of them took half. Englishman Martin Daykin, one of many high European 100k runners of the time, was the favourite. But it surely was his compatriot Dave Dowdle who prevailed and broke 170 miles for the primary time, recording 170.553 miles (274.480k), a distance which till not too long ago was the British report.
Dowdle’s world report glory was solely to final till the autumn that 12 months, when the report returned to France. In November 1982, Bernard Gaudin broke it by a whisker, including an extra 143 meters to complete with 170.699 miles (274.715k).
Dave Dowdle (proper) towards the tip of the 1982 Gloucester 24 Hour race. Photograph: Gloucester Athletic Membership
The Yiannis Kouros Period
In 1983, an unknown Greek runner, Yiannis Kouros, astounded the extremely world by emphatically profitable the well-known Spartathlon race. A feat he repeated the next 12 months, 1984, when overlaying the 245k course in a report 20 hours and 25 minutes. The course in Greece consists of mountainous sections, and temperatures might be heat. Hypothesis began amongst ultramarines on what Kouros might obtain in a flat 24-hour race.
They didn’t have to attend lengthy. Simply eight weeks later, in November 1984, he was on the beginning line in New York, U.S., for the Sri Chinmoy 24-Hour Race. The remaining is extremely historical past. He improved the prevailing report by over 10k, taking it to 176.999 miles (284.583k).
Over the following few years, he would go on to report 14 of one of the best males’s 24-hour occasions ever and break the world report on an extra 4 events, pushing it as much as the primary 300k effort with 188.589 miles (303.506k) in 1997.
Kouros had made the 24-hour distance his personal, and lots of felt the 303k would final for a few years. Over the following 20 years, solely a few runners would report over 280k, however nobody neared 300k.
Yiannis Kouros on the rostrum on the 1998 Self Transcendence 24-Hour Race in Basel, Switzerland. Photograph: Sri Chinmoy Marathon Crew
Alongside Comes Alexander Sorokin
From 2015, when he ran his first 24-hour occasion in Turin, Italy, and recorded 150.489 miles (242.189k), Alexander Sorokin elevated his private report incrementally till recording 173.345 miles (278.972k) in profitable the 2019 IAU 24-Hour World Championships in Albi, France.
Two years later, in August 2021, he took half within the UltraPark Weekend 24 Hour race in Pabianice, Poland. He improved his personal private greatest by an enormous 30k (18 miles), to take Kouros’s males’s 24-hour world report. He improved it by 6k to report 192.251 miles (309.399k). It was a giant soar, not solely on his personal development, but additionally comfortably surpassing Kouros’s mark.
Not content material to sit down on his laurels, one other 12 months later on the 2022 IAU 24-Hour European Championships, he elevated this by an extra 10k to 198.598 miles (319.614k), narrowly lacking the 200-mile barrier.
As talked about, Sorokin will race this weekend’s 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships, so we’ll see if that elusive 200-mile barrier is approached.
Aleksandr Sorokin units a 24-hour world report on the 2021 UltraPark Weekend 24 Hour. Photograph: UltraPark Weekend 24 Hour
The Historical past and Evolution of the Girls’s 24-Hour World File
The Battle of the Brits
Quick ahead three years from Marcy Schwam’s 1979 24-hour world report run, and the British took over for some time. In 1982 — on the identical race at Gloucester, England, the place Dave Dowdle set the then males’s 24-hour world report — Britain’s Lynn Fitzgerald set a girls’s 24-hour world report and pushed it up over 200k to 133.533 miles (214.902k).
Three years later, in 1985, the legend that’s the extremely pioneer and a number of world report breaker Eleanor Adams-Robinson made one other breakthrough. After exhibiting promise in two earlier 24-hour races, she beat Fitzgerald’s distance with 138.441 miles (222.800k). That race was held at Nottingham, England, and was the beginning of a four-year relationship the place she and Hilary Walker, the opposite nice English extremely pioneer, traded the 24-hour world report on 5 events. On the finish of this battle, at a race in Australia in 1989, Adams-Robinson pushed the report up her third and ultimate time to 149.234 miles (240.169k).
Adams-Robinson and Walker had each spoken of wishing to be the primary woman to run over 150 miles in 24 hours. Adams-Robinson received shut on this event, however was round three laps of a 400-meter observe quick. Ultimately, neither of them made that breakthrough.
Eleanor Robinson (left) and Hilary Walker on Crew Nice Britain on the 1997 IAU 100k European Championships. Photograph: Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners
The 150-Mile Breakthrough
The German runner Sigrid Lomsky, at 50 years younger, broke that 150-mile mark by recording 151.401 miles (243.657k).
This mark stood for 3 years earlier than it was damaged by the younger Russian Elena Sidorenkova, who ran 154.659 miles (248.901k). That distance wouldn’t be surpassed for over 13 years.
Japanese Masterclass
The Japanese had for a very long time been very competent 100k runners. They have been now turning their consideration to 24 hours.
In 2009, Mami Kudo cracked the 250k barrier, recording 158.092 miles (254.425k) at a race in Taipei. Two years later, on the identical race, she was to push it out much more, including a few kilometer to report 158.637 miles (255.303k). She was now 47 years previous.
A Polish Double in 2017
Kudo’s report stood for nearly six years, till 2017, which ought to be considered the 12 months of the Polish double. This was the 12 months that Patrycja Bereznowska, of Poland, broke the 24-hour world report twice in 12 weeks.
Patrycja Bereznowska, extra not too long ago, on her approach to setting a 48-hour world report on the 2022 UltraPark Weekend 48 Hour race in Poland. Photograph: Marek Janiak/UltraPark Weekend
Firstly, in April 2017, she ran 159.223 miles (256.246k), surpassing Kudo’s mark by a few kilometer. The 160-mile barrier approached, however few, besides maybe Bereznowska herself, thought that it will occur so quickly. Simply 12 weeks later, in July 2017, she competed on the IAU 24-Hour World Championships occasion in Belfast, Northern Eire.
The occasion is greatest remembered for the ability failing and plunging the entire race into darkness, as help crews hurried to search out head torches within the pitch darkness whereas hoping the chip timing system was nonetheless recording, with its built-in backup batteries, as most runners weren’t going to cease. Energy was duly restored, and so was the stay timing, to the aid of everybody.
After holding off the early tempo of different runners, Berezknowska maintained her personal regular progress to complete strongly within the ultimate hours, working simply over 4k additional with 161.550 miles (259.991k). She set a brand new landmark for girls, working over 160 miles in 24 hours.
Right here Comes Camille Herron
It didn’t take lengthy earlier than the U.S.’s Camille Herron determined to have an actual crack on the 24-hour occasion. The a number of report holder at most distances from 50 miles to 100 miles ran 162.918 miles (262.192k) on the observe, in Phoenix Arizona, in December 2018.
Camille Herron on her approach to setting a brand new 24-hour world report on the 2018 Desert Solstice Observe Invitational. Photograph: Aravaipa Working/Howie Stern
She definitely wasn’t postpone by the expertise, as just below a 12 months later — on October 27, 2019 — she went even additional on the IAU 24-Hour World Championships at Albi, France. This time on a highway loop, she elevated the space by virtually 5 miles to 167.842 miles (270.116k).
This mark has held agency for 4 years. Herron, like Aleksandr Sorokin, is entered for this weekend’s 2023 IAU 24-hour Championships in Taipei. Time will inform if both report might be threatened within the warmth and humidity of that area.
The 24-Hour World File Development Chart
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