GB 24-Hour Men’s Rankings 2023
The GB 24-Hour rankings for 2023 continue to see Great Britain’s men compete with the best in the world and achieve some very credible distances.
Robbie Britton led the rankings with his distance of 277.439 KM set at Turin early in the year, in February. His distance finally broke Dave Dowdle’s long-standing record of 274.480 KM set in 1982 at Gloucester.
Collectively, the British men won a superb Bronze team medal at the IAU World 24 Hour Championships in Taipei in early December.
Conditions in Taiwan, being hot, humid and windy on the day, were not conducive to stellar distances. Nonetheless performances there make up the next few places in the rankings.
Daniel Hawkins, with 261.384 Km, had the second-best distance. Dan Lawson’s 256.410KM was third, with Britton’s second mark of the year, 254.333 km, securing 3rd team for the GB runners, backed up well by Paul Maskell with 247.384 Km and Damian Carr with 239.384 Km.
Outwith the championships, Gareth Pritchard took 3rd place in the rankings with his 257.926 at Crawley in April, while Ben Wernick won the Sri Chinmoy 24 hr at Battersea in October with 245.425 km, Bryan Wilkins, 2nd at Battersea with 240.523 km made it eight performances over 240 km, the same as in 2022.
GLOBAL MEN’S RANKINGS
On a global level, the top four men’s distances were all recorded in Taiwan at the IAU World Championships . Although, as stated, conditions in Taiwan were not totally conducive to big distances, Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin led the way, recording 301.790 km. He now has three of the five performances over 300km, including his world record of 319.614 Km.
Behind Sorokin, Spartathlon winner Fotius Zisimopoulos(Greece) made a breakthrough at 24 hours, running 292.254 km. Ukraine’s Andrej Tkachuk achieved 284.540 with Francisco Martinez Morales running the 4th-best distance of 282.061km to set a new Spanish National record.
Robbie Britton’s GB lead and record placed him in 6th place on the year’s global rankings.
The full men’s Global rankings for 2023 can be seen on the DUV site HERE
British Womens Rankings
Sophie Power ran 235.739 km at Crawley in April to top the GB rankings just edging out Jo Zakrzewski by under 200 metres!
Zakrzewski’s distance of 235.575Km was a split distance on her way to recording a then-world record for 48 hours in Taiwan in February. (Note. Zakrzewski was unavailable for the Taiwan championships after her disqualification from the Manchester -Liverpool ultra in April.)
Power also had the third-best distance with her run in the World Championships in Taiwan with 227.285Km
Ali Young, with her 224.534 from Crawley, had the 4th-best distance.
There were the only 4 marks over 200km in 2023 compared with 6 in 2022.
Global Women’s Rankings.
The standout women’s performance of the year was Miho Nakata’s new World Record set at the IAU Championships in Taiwan. Unlike the Europeans and Americans, she was familiar with December conditions in Taiwan and in a nailbiting last few hours, recorded 270.363 km to pass Camille Herron’s existing record of 270.116 Km, in the last 2 minutes of the 24 hours.
Ukraine’s Olena Shevchenko had the second-best distance with 254.463 km, while Poland’s former World Champion and record holder Patricja Beresknowska was third with 249.541 km.
Overall, there were fifteen performances over 240km, nine of which were set in the World Championship in Taiwan.
The women’s Global rankings for 2023, can be seen on the DUV site HERE
A report I wrote for Athletics Weekly on the 2023 World 24 hour Championships is HERE
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Adrian Tarit Stott.
The author is a former GB 24 hour ultra international with over 100 ultra race completions. He has also been involved organising ultra distance races for over 30 years. Still an active recreational runner, he is currently a member of UKA’s Ultra Distance Advisory Group (URAG) and part of the selection and team management for both Scottish and GB ultra teams.
