Sichel’s Unbeaten Record Under Threat In New York’s Epic 6 Day Endurance Race
Orkney-based ultra marathon runner, William Sichel (58) competes for the first time in the 15th edition of the Sri Chinmoy non-stop 6 Day race, in New York’s Flushing Meadow Park, starting on Sunday April 22nd at 5pm UK time.
William remains unbeaten in 6 day races since his debut in Monaco in 2006. He’s since won further events in Monaco (2007), Hamm in Germany (2008) and Balaton in Hungary (2011). William has a current overall world ranking of No 2 in the 6 day event.
“I’ll certainly have my work cut-out in New York, as I’ll be up against previous New York winners Ashprihanal Aalto from Helsinki and Rimas Jakelaitis from Lithuania. ‘Round the World’ runner Jesper Olsen from Denmark, will also be putting in an appearance. I’m in good shape and I’m looking forward to a good, competitive race.”
A bumper capacity entry of 25 men and 13 women from 18 countries will battle it out over 144 hours, on a one mile circuit, close to the National Tennis Centre in Flushing, New York. A 10 day race also takes place concurrentlyat the same venue, finishing at the same time as, with the 6 day race.
The New York event has a long history and is one of the few events, nowadays, to rely on manual lap counters, who operate in 6 hour shifts, counting and time recording every runner’s laps as they pass by.
In May last year, William set a new overall British road record for the greatest distance run in 6 days, 518.34 miles. This was also a new World Age-Group record.
William is a member of the Orkney Athletic Club and is currently engaged in Project 60@60 in which he is attempting to have set 60 ultra distance records, at World, British and Scottish level, including age-groups, before his 60th birthday on October 1st 2013. Currently William has set 58 records, including 6 World Age-Group records.