SURPRISE TOP 10 WORLD RANKING FOR SICHEL

Orkney’s international ultra distance runner, William Sichel from Sanday, has got a ‘surprise’ top 10 world ranking for the first time. His personal best performance of 87.90 miles in last August’s Boston Games 12hr track race was the 9th best in the world last year.

“It was quite a surprise for me as normally world ranking lists are not produced for the 12hr event, but this year the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) has published lists of performances for the 12hr for the first time. I’ve always wanted a world top 10 ranking in the 24hr event, and I’m still aiming for that but it is a step in the right direction to make it in the 12hrs.”

William is headed in the ranking list by athletes from Greece, Hungary, Belgium, Slovakia and Russia. Unfortunately, that was William last race of the season as a shin injury, sustained shortly after the race, kept him out of competition for the rest of last year.

The shin problem proved to be an intermittent nuisance for some time and William is only now getting back to full fitness and confidence once again.

His next main target is to defend his Basle International 24hr Road Race title on May 4th/5th. Prior to that William may race in either Cheltenham - National 100km Championships on April 7th or the Speyside 50km trail race on April 14th.

“I’ll only make a late decision on these build up races. I’m still trying to get back to 100% fitness for these gruelling races and I don’t want to start racing too soon. I’ll just have to wait and see.”

Warmer climes are William’s next destination as he heads off to northern Majorca in mid March for 14 days warm weather training which will hopefully put the finishing touches to his preparations for this season.

William was voted Orkney’s first ‘Sportsman of the Year’ in November 2000. 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.

25/2/02