World 100 Km Challenge    Torhout, Belgium 8.8.93    by Trevor Jacobs
I was very keen to participatein this race to make it 4 out of 4 championships. Thanks to support by the ACT Office of Sport and Recreationin particular, I was able to make it AURA selected the largest team ever to contest the event, with 6 men and 4 women included. There were 32 countries and 363 runners participating
Upon arrival in Belgium, we soon discovered that the race organisers were seriously contemplatingcancelling the event because their King (Boudewijn)had recently died and the funeral was on race day. It was incredible to witness the love that most Belgians had for their king and the profoundimpact that his death had on the country. It was agreed to postponethe event to the day after his funeral. As resting on the bed was the plan for the day before the race, we saw on TV hour after hour of funeral processions and services. All channels telecast the funeral, and later in the day and evening there were replays. This was a memorablepreparationfor the race.
Weather on race day was fine and cool to start with, but it soon warmed up after the rather late 8 am start. The course consisted of 10 x a 10 Km loop, which was very convenient for our handlers and spectators, and OK for runners because you knew what was coming without getting bored. T had decided beforehandto set out at just under 4 min /Km and hold this for as long as possible, with the aim of getting well under 7 hours. As it turned out if I had achieved this it would have placed me in the top 10 finishers. There was a high dropout rate in the second half, and although I slowed significantly also, I managed to finish OK. Most of those retiring did so due to cramps, probably due to excessive sweating and stress from the very humid and warm to hot conditions as the day wore on.
Nicole Carroll from Qld was the first Aussie to succumb at 30 Km, followed by Safet Badic from Vic after 50 Km. Safet ran with the race leaders early, passing through 50 Km in 3hr 9min. He was stopped by severe cramps. Don Wallace pulled out at 70 Km after he realised that he was slowing and was not going to beat his National Record of 6hr 39min. I think he passed 50 Km in about 3hr 15min. Anne Stauntonfrom the ACT retired at 70 Km, after a great effort (she had been sick), when it became obvious that she would not complete 100 Km within the time limit
I ran with Don Wallace for the first lap ( 38min 52sec) then let him go because I felt that the pace was a bit too fast The next two laps went to plan with 10 Km splits of 39.32 and 39.14, but after a toilet stop things slowed a little for some inexplicable reason giving splits of 41.40 and 42.10 to yield 50 Km in 3.21.08. This was still very close to my original target of 3.20.00, but the last splits were a bit of a worry to me at the time. The slowing trend continued unfortunately, and subsequent splits were 43.36, 45.18 and 45.54, to give 80 Km in 5.35.52. Consequently! revised my plan to try and get in under 7 hours, but even that fell foul The last 2 laps took 46.20 and 45.43 to give 100 Km in 7hr 08min 55sec (an average of 14 Km per hour), for 25th spot, 3 mins behind the 1st Kiwi (Russel Prince, who was 2nd in 1990), 9 mins behind the first American and 10 mins behind the first Pom, but ahead of the 2nd Kiwi, American and Pom. Don Ritchie retired and I beat for the first time Roland Vuillemenotfrom France who won in 1990. Twelve of the 32 countries had their first runner finishing before me. I was pleased to be the first Aussie home for the 4th year in a row (albeitthe only Aussie in 1991).

Of the teams, many seemed to get annihilated, probably none worse than the British men’s team who had only 3 finishers. The race was won by Konstantin Santalov in 6.26.26, for the 2nd year in a row. The first woman was Carolyn Hunter-Rowefrom Great Britain in 7.27.19 (44th outright). Even Konstantin suffered from cramps towards the end of the race and actually came to a completestop with ahout200m to go, but soon got started again to win by 2.33 from Jean-Paul Praet from Belgium. Third was Peter Hermannsalso from Belgium in 6.36.26. The second woman was ValentinaShatyaeva from Russia in 7.27.39 (45th), and another Russian, Valentina Liakhova, was third in 7.38.01 (49th).
Bruce Cook from Qid (formerly ACT) was the next Aussie in 7.56.21 for 73rd place, then Geoff Boasc also from Qid in 8.19.16 (104th). Andrew Law came in 135th with 8.42.57 after battling severe stomach pains for most of the race due to excessive wind (what did you cat Andrew?); this was a gutsy effort just to finish. The Yanks gave him some pills to expel the gas which worked so well that when Santalov was nearing the finish he sat in behind Andrew fora while (which was very brave as Andrew was literally ripping along at this stage) and Andrew received a caution from the officials for pacing Santalov. This was a hit rough on Andrew I believe, because you cannot control who runs behind you very well, and it could be argued that Santalov should have been cautioned for sitting on Andrew. It was an interesting talking point, however, but even more interesting was the fist-fight between Jean-Paul Praet and Charl Mattheus from South Africa.
I asked Charl what had happenedafter the race and his version of the incidentwas that he stopped briefly to use the toilet and sprinted to rejoin the lead pack. Praet accused him of cheating as he could not believe that he could have caught them back up so quickly. As they ran along Pract repeatedly called for the officials to remove Charl from the race, which they did not. Later, at a drink station, Charl accidentally splashed Praet and that is when Praet apparently snapped and he and an assistant got stuck into Charl, who suhseyuentlywithdrew. Santalov stepped in to keep them off Charl. After the race the South Africans lodged a protest but it was dismissed. This seemed pretty weak to me if the incident was as described above, and perhaps the appeal was dismissed because they could not verify one version or the other?
Another interesting comment I gleaned from the South African coaches was that their runners that competed in the Comrades race on 31 May did not fare very well in this race. Probably there was not enough recovery time (2 months). It was also interestingto see the fantastic level of support most of the other countries gave their athletes. The South Africans were easily the best organised and equipped, which included team suits and ties, travel, their own bus and accommodation etc. The British team runners had everything supplied (airfares, coaches, accommodation costs, walkie talkies for their assistants, kit etc), and likewise for other countries such as USA, Russia, Belgium, France, Germany etc. All the assistance we got, apart from what the individuals could rustle up, was one airfare and US$1 5130 from the IA U shared amongst 11 people. It is a pity that this prestigious event is not recognised as such by Australian officials and supported to the extent that many of the other countries enjoy. Nonetheless, Athletics Australiahave been very helpful with all other aspects of getting Aussies to the event.

The first IAU North American 100km Championship was held recently (27/3/93) similar to our first Australasian Championships. Even though there were quite a few runners from other countries, and a much larger field, results were similar. The winning American team time of 21:45:38 is only a little faster than our 22:16:04. The North American results are reproduced here for your information.

Reprinted from IAU Newsletter, Spring Edition, 1993
NEW YORK ULTIMAX 100 KM RACE.    USA.    February 27th 1993
IAU Inter-Continental Cup Series Event
by Malcolm Campbell
The New York Times started it’s race report with “In a race slowed by the cold, 28-year-old Valmir Nunes of Brazil and 30-year-old Marta Vass of Hungary lived up to their international credentials yesterday, finishing the U.S.A. national 100 kilometer championships in Central Park well ahead of their closest rivals.” That sums it up nicely.
The winning margins were similar although the methods used by Nunes and Vass were quite different. The Hungarian set off at a brisk seven miles per hour pace and established an early lead which she maintained to the finish with the new American National Champion-Kris Clark-Setnessfinishing about seven minutes later. The Brazilian adopted completely different tactics allowing the Canadian, Andy Jones, to dominate matters for the first seventy kilometres.The course was on a 7km rolling lap course and after 10 laps Jones had stretched his lead to about eight minutes. Up to this point Nunes and Stefan Fekner(CAN) had run comfo-rtably sharing second spot for much of the race. Shortly after 70kms Jones was obliged to retire. Fekner ran a great race and the issue was not fully settled until the last lap with Nunes reaching the finish about six minutes ahead of him.
A new dimension had been added to the championships with the first three American men and women guaranteed selection for the National Teams in the IAU 100km World Challenge.Similarly the Association of Canadian Ultrarunners (ACU) had supported the event with the Canadian entries also fighting for National team places. Whilst taking nothing away from the race winners much of the drama and interest in the event lay in the great battles taking place a little behind (but not too far behind) them. Only eight minutes seperated the first and third placed American woman with Sue-Ellen Trapp less than two minutes behind her. In the men’s division only six minutes seperated the first American man from the third. The first husband and wife to gain selection for their national teams were Kris Clark-Setnes winner of the womens National Championships with 8.21.19 and Kevin Setnes , second in the men’s division with 7.15.50
This was more more than an event. It was a happening. Race Director, Richie Innamorato of the Broadway Ultra Society, undertook the job when the original championship race was cancelled. In the space of a few months the race was on and the competitors were off and running. Fred Lebow, Chairman of the New York Road Runners Club, has never hidden his enthusiasm for ultradistance and gave his valuable support. A number of talented international competitors were invited and in addition to those already mentioned the field included Don Ritchie(GBR),Erik Seedhouse (GBR), Zbigniew Siemaszko (POL), Doina Nugent (IRL) and Bev Williams (CAN). .
There were many in Central Park-either involved in or watching the race-who had played key roles in the development of North American ultradistance running. The list is long and headed by Americas most loved and respected ultrarunner-Ted Corbitt. Nick Marshall another well respected ultrarunner and author was busy at the scoring table.Peter Gagarin editor of “Ultrarunning” and ACU President, David Blaikie, who is also editor of “Ultrarunning Canada” were there and will have seen much to report. On reflection there were many authors involved,with or watching the race. Ed Dodd who is generally credited with the revival of Six Day Racing was running. Jim Shapiro wrote “Ultramarathon” and this book is required reading for any ultrarunner-he was now helping Nunes.Dan Brannen was-the Referee and Marvin Skagerberg was supervising the aid stations. The list of key players in the development of the sport who were at this race goes on and only space prevents me completing it.
New York Marathon Medical Director, Andy Rodriguez, was Medical Director for this race. I have known Andy for many years and have yet to see him fazed. The night before he had overseen the Drug Testing of about 100 athletes at the Indoor Meeting at the Madison Square Gardens. He had about ten tests taken in the 100km race and was, I suspect, about to put his feet _up. One of the helpers came in asking if a patient could be treated for a dog bite. Without hesition he said “Sure. Bring the runner in”.”It’s not one of the runners” was the reply.” Is it a helper?” asked Andy. “No”. This time there was a short pause and Andy said “Well bring him in anyway”. This verbal exchange took only a few seconds but I found it fascinating. The helper shuffled his feet for a minute and then said, ” I think you should know something else. The patients another dog”. I do not think any animal can have had such distinguished assistance as this one as everyone swung into action. I repeat again, I have yet to see Andy fazed.
Dirk Strumane Fred Lebow to old gleam back for New York. Results.
and his wife Martine were at the race and they have invited Torhout for the IAU 100km World Challenge.

Fred’s got that in his eye. That’s good for ultradistance running and good Watch this space.

It is interesting how talk of a Commonwealth 100km race was first raised in 1992.  Here is an article from the archives.

Double click on the image to read the full details.

In 2009, the Commonwealth 100km will finally become a reality.  Click here for the full details. AURA