William sets new Scottish 48 Hour record in Czech Republic

Sanday runner William Sichel stormed to his first national record last week in the Czech Indoor 48 Hour Championships in Brno, Czech Republic.  Running in his fourth 48 Hour event William managed to break the 18 year old, overall, Scottish 48 Hour record set by Canadian-Scot Al Howie by 19.92 miles, increasing it to 213.92 miles/344.267km (over 8.2 marathons) for the two day non-stop event. 

Speaking from the Moravian capital Brno, William explained the special feeling that goes with achieving his first national record at age 53.

“A fantastic feeling, it’s taken a long time to get to this level but I’m really reaping the benefits now of consistent, long term training and preparation. After disappointments and set backs you can’t see yourself getting to this level but if you stick at it and just keep improving you get there in the end.”

Setting this new personal best for the 48 Hour event brought William 6th place from 51 starters representing 17 nations at this popular event.  The surprise race winner was Ireland’s Tony Mangan with a new World Indoor Record of 426.178km/264.8 miles.

William is currently World No1 for the Six Day event following victory in Monaco in November last year.

“Many lessons from the Monaco success were brought ‘down distance’ to this two day event and they worked for me again.  This included having a small meal every four hours and using short naps when the pace dropped too much.  It’s amazing how much I was revived by a 20 minute nap during the race.”

Another 4 miles and William would have also had the British 48 Hour indoor record but that will have to wait for another occasion.

Going into the race William was very much aware that he had never done two successful long ultras back to back before, great success having previously been followed by set backs.  This performance has really blown that jinx out of the water and bodes well for the rest of this season.

Following a two week spell of warm weather training in Lanzarote in April, William will head to Basel for the Swiss 24 Hour Championships in mid-May.

William is grateful to sponsors: Myprotein & Loganair

End.

21/3/07