Sichel attempts 24 Hour Championship in Austria

Orkney’s world number one, Six Day ultra distance athlete, William Sichel, travels to the Steiermark region of south west Austria for the Austrian 24 Hour Championships this weekend July 21st and 22nd.

Always a hot race and prone to heavy down pours the competition is also likely to be stiff.  The event has attracted a strong field of over 170 entries in the men’s event with over 20 nationalities being represented.  The top Austrians will be targeting this major race and a strong contingent of Hungarians, amongst others, will cross the border to provide serious opposition.

This extreme endurance event is being run on a 1.4 mile road circuit around the town of Worschach and forms part of a Festival of Running that takes over the town from Friday to Sunday.  The Festival includes children’s races, a half marathon night race and the 24 hour individual and team relay.  The narrow, valley roads will be clogged with traffic as participants and spectators arrive to experience this annual sports extravaganza.

This event represents a drop down in distance for William who is still fresh from his Scottish record in the 48 hour event (213.92 miles), set in the Czech Republic in March and his 2006 World Best Six Day performance of 478.6 miles set in Monaco last November.  All part of what he considers has been his best 12 months since entering the sport of ultra distance running in 1994.

William’s most recent race was the Swiss 24 hour Championships held in Basel in May.

“I hope to run further than the 116 miles I did in Switzerland.  I’ve sorted out a better routine for eating and drinking and training has gone very well these last months so I feel that many things are in place for a good performance.”

In order to allow more people to be involved, William has arranged for his web site www.williamsichel.co.uk to be updated regularly during the event.

William is grateful to sponsors: Myprotein, Loganair & The Orcadian

End.

13/7/07