10 April 2015

A 12-strong Great Britain and Northern Ireland team head for Turin this weekend to compete at the IAU World and European 24 hour Championships. It is one of the strongest fields ever assembled for a 24 hour championships and the British team will be targeting further success on this stage.

The women’s team is led by the experienced Emily Gelder who was a world bronze medallist at these championships in Katowice in 2012 where she set her PB of 238 .875km. She was recently a member of the gold medal winning GB & NI women’s team at the IAU 100km world championship in Doha last November.

She will be backed up by the three leading athletes from the British 24 hour rankings in 2014; Fionna Ross, Isobel Wykes and Karen Hathaway. Ross and Wykes both set their personal bests at the Self Transcendence 24 hour race at Tooting Bec last September to lead the overall fields and record 233.018 km and 230.134 km respectively.

Hathaway was first lady at the Barcelona 24 hour race in December with a distance of 221.560km. The two other ladies are the Glasgow pair of Sharon Law and Debbie Martin-Consani. Law was the European bronze medallist when these championships were last held in Holland in 2013 with a distance of 226.107km. Consani set her PB of 220.037km in the same race and was winner of the Lakeland 100 mile trail race last July.

The men’s team is led by Steve Holyoak, a top ten finisher at the 2013 world championship. He is joined by Marco Consani who made a real breakthrough in 24 hour running when he won the Tooting Bec race in 2013 with a distance of 248.879km. He backed this up last year with victories in the Lakeland 100, and the Centurion winter 100 mile race.

Grand Union canal race winner Paddy Robbins, Gloucester 24 hour winner Dan Lawson and the young talented Robbie Britton reinforce the competitive British team.

As well as individual medals, there is always a keenly fought team competition where the cumulative distance of countries first three runners, decide the positions.

The Great Britain and Northern Ireland team has the potential for individual and team medals; however they will face strong competition from other leading ultra nations including Japan, USA, France, Germany and the hosts Italy.

The field includes 350 runners from over 40 countries and every runner will have one goal in mind, and that is to see how far they can run in 24 hours. The race consists of running continuous 2km loops in the parkland setting of the Parco Rufinni. Each lap completed gives a total finishing distance with will determine the medal winners.

GB & NI team at the IAU 24 Hour ultra-running World and European Championships – Turin, Italy:

Senior Men

Robbie Britton               
Marco Consani                
Steve Holyoak                 
Dan Lawson                    
Pat Robbins                     

Senior Women

Emily Gelder
Karen Hathaway                
Sharon Law                          
Debbie Martin-Consani    
Fionna Ross                         
Isobel Wykes                       

Live tracking of the race can be found through the link below. The race starts at 10am on Saturday 11 April.
https://www.mysdam.net/events/event/results_31131.do