Australians run 80 hours or more in 'crazy' race with no finish line
Just two of Australia's 15 competitors remain in the gruelling Backyard Ultra World Team Championships at Kembla Grange.
In the Backyard Ultra World Team Championship, a grueling running race with no finish line, 15 Australians out of a team of 15 remained at Kembla Grange, having completed over 1,000 laps. The event, hosted in the New South Wales Illawarra, saw about 900 runners from 67 nations participate. Each athlete completes a 6.7-kilometre loop on the hour, every hour, until only one runner remains.
The race, which can last more than four days, tests both physical and mental endurance. Jonathan Ash, the first Australian to withdraw, left due to injury and knee bursitis after his 41st lap. Phil Gore, an Australian competitor, broke the world record last year by running 119 laps, or 797.3km, over five days. Brandon Lee Gretch from Melbourne achieved a personal best and tapped out after 73 laps.
Despite the severe attrition rate, Dan Camac and Ben Nicholls, the remaining Australian competitors, hope to reach 100 hours by Thursday morning. The event, invented 15 years ago by Gary Lazarus Lake Cantrell, challenges competitors to push beyond the 24-hour mark, revealing that everyone is capable of more than they think.
Written by urgent.news from ABC News AU's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
