SICHEL FACES RECORD FIELD IN EUROPEAN 24HR CHALLENGE
Orkney’s William Sichel, 47, represents Great Britain for the 10th time on Friday 25th May when he sets off in the European 24hr Challenge in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. William ran seven times for Britain at the 100km distance and this will be his third appearance in the 24 hour event which he now specialises in. Running as part of a three man British team, William will face a record field of 162 starters including representatives of 14 national men’s teams, another record.
The race takes place on a road circuit of approx. 1 mile in the leafy town of Apeldoorn in central Holland. The gun goes at 2 o’clock (local time) on Friday with the runners covering the maximum distance possible before the gun goes again 24 hours later. Every runner will wear a computer chip on their shoe laces which will help in the lap counting process and track their progress during the race. Data will also be fed to a web site for enthusiasts and the media to be able to follow the race world wide.
William’s best performance in the 24hr event came just 12 months ago when he won the prestigious Basle 24hr road race in Switzerland with a personal best distance of 153.3 miles. This performance led the world rankings for a couple of months and was good enough to give William a world ranking of No12 by the end of last year.
This season’s form William describes as ‘promising’ with 5th place in the Soochow 24hr track race, Taiwan, in early March and 3rd place (47.23 miles) in the George Littlewood 6hr track race in Sheffield on April 28th.
“This European event is very important for me. I need to consolidate the performance I achieved last year and also achieve some kind of consistency in the 24hr event. I have had a good build up and am looking forward to a good performance. If I can run to form a good top 10 finish is possible. I will be using much more conservative tactics then ever before. I intend starting at a much slower pace than I normally do in an attempt to run at a more even pace and thereby achieve a greater distance. It will be interesting to see how it works out on the day. I still consider myself very much a novice at this event with a lot still to learn.”
William was voted Orkney’s first ‘Sportsman of the
Year’ last year. He is a member of the Moray Road Runners and the Orkney
Athletic Club. With his wife, Elizabeth, he runs the Orkney Angora mail order
craft business in Sanday.
William is grateful to sponsors Orkney Meat (main sponsor), The Ayre Hotel,
The Orcadian, Crantit Dairy (Orkney Ice Cream) and Saucony UK. William also
receives a grant from the sportScotland Lottery Fund.
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