The men’s GB rankings at 24 Hours have been completely rewritten after the IAU European 24 hour championships in Verona on the weekend of 17/18 Sept 2022. No less than five GB athletes either improved their PB to rise higher in the rankings or entered the all time top 10 for the first time.

Dan Lawson leads the charge up the GB 24 hr rankings

Dan Lawson, European 24 hour Champion in 2016 and the most experienced man amongst the GB athletes in Verona, led the way with a phenomenal 273.003 km (169.636 miles). His distance gave him 5th place overall in the race and catapulted him to 2nd in the GB 24 hour rankings behind Dave Dowdle’s long standing mark of 274.480 km (170.553miles).

Maskell and Hawkins tie for 9th place in Verona

Dan Hawkins and Paul Maskell seemed to run most of the race together and tied on 265.302 km (164.851 miles). Maskell improved his PB of 251.260 from 2019 by 14km, and Hawkins by almost 8km /5 miles from his performance of 257.240 km in Holland in March 2022. Their distance now ranks them 4th equal athletes on the GB 24 hour rankings

Whearity turns tables on Carr

At the Crawley 24 hour in April 2021, Damian Carr and Alex Whearity had both made big breakthroughs finishing 1st and 2nd in that race. Carr recording a distance of 262.916km (163.368 m) to Whearity’s 257.037km,( distances that earned them selection for Verona.

In Verona Whearity improved his distance by 4km to record 261.039 (162.202 Miles)for 14th place. Carr meanwhile was one place behind with 260.367 km (161.784Miles). Both runners consistency justifying their selection.

The other men in the GB squad in Verona were Gareth Pritchard who improved his PB to 246.969km (153.459 Miles). Nathan Flear who logged up 227.413 km(141.307Miles) together with James Stewart and Rob Payne who both had challenging races but kept on track to both record 221.7 km (137.75Miles)

Updated GB 24 hour Rankings

Below are the updated GB 24 hour rankings after Verona.

A more detailed list can be found at the DUV Site

You can read our blog on the evolution of the men’s World 24 hour record HERE

What exactly is a 24 hour race?

For those reading this who don’t know how a 24 hour race works, it is quite simple. In a marathon or 100km race it is a fixed distance with a variable finishing time. A 24 hour race on the other hand has a fixed time of 24 hours. The aim is to see what distance you can cover in that time. 24 hour races are usually held on small loop courses. You can take breaks to eat or rest, but if you stop, the mileometer also stops. It depends on how you approach the event. Many recreational distance runners tackle 24 hour events each year, using a mixture of walking and running possibly broken up with planned rest breaks.

At a European or World Championships like the Verona event, the standard is very high with very experienced runners totally focussed on squeezing out every last metre. They will rarely stop running completely, but eat and drink on the move to keep logging distance. The British runners mentioned in this article are all in the very top bracket of European performers.

Team effort in Verona

The GB men’s team by their collective efforts finished fourth at the Championships. Team scores are decided by adding the total distances of the first three nominated athletes from a country.

A country can enter up to 9 runners per team several weeks in advance. This covers teams for athletes picking up injuries and illness or losing form. However on the weekend of competition they have to nominate 6 “scoring runners”. The other runners are allowed to run and have their distances recorded but their distances do not count to the team total of the nominated runners.

Lawson despite his excellent track record had not run a “stellar 24 hr distance” in recent times. Other nominated athletes had run superior performances in the last couple of years. He was therefore not named in the final six. Hindsight, of course, is perfect for he ran an exceptional race.

Had Lawson been a counting runner, GB would have narrowly pipped the Spanish team for 3rd place! Unfortunate, but it is a fate that has happened to other nations before. It is also a reality of the unpredictability of 24 hour racing and of the conundrums for selectors whatever the sport. They shouldn’t beat themselves up too much as the total score for the 3 counting runners Maskell, Hawkins and Whearity was 791.643 km. They all recorded PB’s and the collective distance was a record for a GB team, surpassing the collective 770.777 km by the men when winning team gold at the Turin World Championships of 2015. The team on that occasion was Robbie Britton, Paddy Robbins and Steve Holyoak.

Like the overall high standard at the recent World 100km Championships in Berlin, things have moved on.

Phenomenal World Record from Aleksandr Sorokin

Despite the incredible breakthrough performance of the GB men, they were all outshone by the phenomenal distance recorded by Aleksandr Sorokin. The Lithuanian surpassed his already impressive world record of 309.399 km (192.251 miles) to record 319.614km (198.598miles). A distance tantalisingly short of the magical 200 mile barrier, a target some observers felt was achievable pre-race. Time will tell whether he can indeed achieve that, or if this big effort was the “MAX” of his capabilities.

You can read our blog on Sorokin’s world record progression HERE

Full results

You can find links to the individual and team results from the IAU link HERE

You can read our Verona 24 hour pre race chats with Jo Zakrzewski and James Stewart HERE

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