SICHEL TAKES ON WORLD'S BEST IN CZECH REPUBLIC
Sanday's international ultra distance runner William Sichel (Orkney AC), takes on the world's best ultra runners this weekend when he competes in the IAU World/European 24 hour Championships in Brno, Czech Republic on Saturday 23 rd /Sunday 24 th October.
A field of approx 150 runners from more than 25 nations will line up at 10am, local time, on Saturday morning, to see who can cover the greatest distance in 24 hours whilst lapping on a 1.4 mile course through the streets of a residential suburb in Brno , the Moravian capital, which lies 120 miles east of Prague.
The national athletic federation, UK Athletics, has the toughest qualifying standards in the world and no UK male athlete has achieved the individual qualifying mark of 142.9 miles and just one has made the team standard of 139.8 miles. Hence no male team has been selected but a UK female team will be going to Brno as sufficient runners have achieved the ladies qualifying distance.
William, currently ranked No2 in the UK at the 24 hour event, will be running as an individual. His best for this year came when finishing in 4 th place overall in the Dutch 24hr Championships in May, covering 134.4 miles. William's best performance came in 2000 when he covered 153.30 miles when winning the Basel 24hr in Switzerland.
Competition is getting tougher every year but in these extraordinarily long events anything can happen and William knows how open these events can be.
"Previous form doesn't always count for much in these races. They are very open, you have to compete and you never know what's going to happen on the day. I made a good recovery from the calf injury sustained last month and I'm looking forward to covering a good distance in Brno. I will have multiple targets to aim at during this event but obviously to regain the UK No1 ranking and achieve the UK Athletics qualifying distances will be amongst them."
William is competing in open competition at international and world level, not in competitions restricted to age groups, island or Scottish residence. He has twice been ranked in the Top 12 in the world (1998 and 2000) and believes that he is still making progress in this extreme event. He has been ranked in the Top 2 in Britain every year since 1998.
"I have had two excellent performances of 150 miles plus so far in my 24hr career, but haven't had the consistency that I want. For some time I had severe nutritional problems in races and sometimes pacing mis-judgements spoiled my performances. There are signs this year that I am beginning to learn the event as my performance in Holland demonstrated. I now want to build on that this weekend and in the future."
William is a long term member of the Orkney Athletic Club and has represented Great Britain 11 times at ultra distance running since 1996. William set new Guinness World Records for both 100 miles and 24hrs on the treadmill in December 2002. With his wife, Elizabeth, he runs the Orkney Angora mail order knitwear business in Sanday, Orkney.
William is grateful to sponsors Orkney Meat (main sponsor), The Ayre Hotel, The Orcadian and Crantit Dairy (Orkney Ice Cream) and Loganair .
William's running web site, which is being developed as a resource for ultra running in general, can be found at www.williamsichel.co.uk
Picture caption: William Sichel
Making contact:
William Sichel, Upper Breckan , Sanday , Orkney KW17 2AZ. Tel/Fax: 01857 600421. Mobile (whilst travelling only) 0794 128 3506. william@williamsichel.co.uk Running web site: http://www.williamsichel.co.uk/
Photographs:
Newsline Scotland (Press Agency). Tel 01224 594000. photos@newsline-scotland.co.uk
Ken Amer , Orkney Photographic. Tel 01856 873574, Mobile 07808 961780 info@orkneyphotographic.co.uk
William Sichel, ‘Free to use' photographs can be down loaded from my on-line photo album. Go to: http://www.williamsichel.co.uk/ and click on ‘Photos'.
18/10/04