RUNNING | Dundalk's Darren Crawley makes Irish ultra-running team
Dundalk ultra runner Darren Crawley will represent Ireland in the World Backyard Team Championship in October after a successful qualification bid.
The Jenkintown native ran a mammoth 277 kilometres in just 34 hours to finish in joint-sixth position in a field of 94 participants, booking his place in the worlds in the process.
The National Backyard Championship, which was the qualifying event in Ireland, commenced on Saturday, August 10th and finished at 7am the following Monday. Wayne McGuigan from Armagh was the event’s winner, running 288km over 43 continuous hours of work.
Following his success, McGuigan will hold the title of Irish Backyard Champion for two years, while his efforts also helped Ulster to win the Province Championship, with runners from that region clocking a combined 2,488km over the three-day blitz.
The backyard ultra is a unique and exciting discipline. The backyard run is a “last man standing” ultramarathon elimination race where runners must run a distance of 6.706km in under an hour in consecutive loops.
The pace set roughly works out at 100 miles per 24 hours and competitors must be back at the start line on the hour to stay in the race. If they fail to report at the line when a new hour starts, then they are eliminated.
The intense races last for several days and the current world record for the event is 108 hours of consecutive running covering a gargantuan 724 kilometres.
On Irish shores, Keith Russel, who hails from Navan, is the current record holder with a distance of 597km.
The World Team Championships, which is a biannual event, has a high enough profile to feature on sports betting sites and this year’s iteration gets underway on October 19th. The 2024 World Backyard Team Championship will be contested at Big Dog's Trail outside Bell Buckle, Tennessee.
15 runners from Ireland and Northern Ireland will compete at the competition, while representatives from 64 other countries will also take part. The nation that completes the most circuits combined will crowned the winning country.
Darren Crawley is a member of local running group “Louth Trail and Ultra Runners”. They gather to meet every Tuesday evening for a 10km run around the county and new members are always welcome.
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