SICHEL REVEALS PLANS FOR NEW SEASON

Sanday's international ultra distance runner William Sichel has a busy few months ahead as he attempts to gain Great Britain team selection for the World & European 24 Hour Championships to be held in Austria in July.

UK Athletics (who have the toughest ultra distance selection standards in the world) have yet to announce the selection criteria for this year's World Championships but they are likely to be around 139 miles to qualify for team selection (minimum three qualifiers required) and 142 miles to gain individual selection regardless of whether other runners qualify.

William's first date is a couple of weeks of warm weather training in northern Majorca , a training base he has used regularly over the past 7 years. Relatively quiet country roads, a variety of terrain and usually good weather conditions make this location a good spot to be in early April.

Shortly after returning from Majorca in mid April William will start tapering down for his first big race of the year on May 7 th /8th, the Basel 24hr road race in Switzerland where William will attempt to achieve the qualifying marks required for British team selection. This will be William's first race since winning the "Across the Years" 24 hour event in Phoenix, Arizona on January 1st.

Mid July will see William heading for Austria either as a GB team member or as an individual entry depending on the Swiss result.

At the end of September William will make his first visit to Greece to participate in the world's longest point-to-point race, the "Spartathlon", which is run from Athens to Sparta – a distance of 153 miles.

"I've got some challenging targets this year and I'm getting well prepared to tackle them. I'm really looking forward to the upcoming events and hope to keep up the good form I demonstrated in America in January."

William was voted Orkney's 'Veteran Sportsman of the Year' in November 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 The Ayre Hotel, The Orcadian , Crantit Dairy (Orkney Ice Cream), dion_networks 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

Pictures: William at the ‘Across the Years' race in Arizona.

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''.

22/03/05