Orkney athlete becomes first for 15 years to tackle six day ultra endurance event

Orkney ultra endurance athlete William Sichel will become the first Scot for 15 years to tackle a six day, non-stop ultra endurance event when he starts the "No finish Line" Six Day ultramarathon in Monaco from Saturday November 18th to Friday 23rd.

William will toe the line, with about 40 other competitors, at 2pm local time on the harbour-side one kilometre course in Monaco, very close to the famous tunnel section of the Grand Prix course. Last year's world-ranked number two, six day runner, Frenchman Claude Hardel will start as favourite.

William has now gained considerable experience as an ultra runner since coming into the sport in 1994.  Having completed twenty 24 Hour events as well as a number of 100km and 'classic' ultra events world-wide, William feels that he has now sufficient experience to tackle this immense challenge.

"I’m the sort of person that always wants to try things to see if I’m any good at them.  That's how I came into the sport in the first place.  Otherwise I would still be a marathon runner.  The Six Day event has a very long history and I’m excited to be having a go at one myself now. The last Scot to have a go was Canada-based Al Howie who set the current Scottish six day road record of 514 miles in New York in 1991"

Six Day racing reached a peak in popularity in the Victorian years of the 1870's when the top professional athletes of the day tackled these extreme endurance events.  Nowadays the event has had something of a revival with about a dozen events held every year at venues around the world.  A performance of over 400 miles is considered to be of international standard.

The purpose of the event is very simple –to cover the greatest distance possible, on foot, in six days.  How the athletes decide to break up their days into running, walking, eating, sleeping etc is entirely up to them.

"In practise it’s best to have a detailed plan of action ready before the start otherwise a lot of time can be wasted.  This plan can then be adjusted with experience as the race progresses.  I’m lucky to have a handler/helper coming with me which can be invaluable especially as fatigue really starts to bite after two or three days."

In order to allow a larger number of people to be involved in the event William has arranged for his web site, www.williamsichel.co.uk to be updated twice daily with his distance covered and some race photos.  Thanks to Orcadia Design for help with this.

William is grateful to sponsors: dion_networks, Loganair, Sheila Fleet Jewellery and The Orcadian.

End.

13/11/06