ATHLETICS

Peter Cromie and Guillame Calmettes at the Atlas Running Last One Standing. (Photo  Atlas Running)Peter Cromie and Guillame Calmettes at the Atlas Running Last One Standing. (Photo  Atlas Running)
Peter Cromie and Guillame Calmettes at the Atlas Running Last One Standing. (Photo  Atlas Running)
The Atlas Running '˜Last One Standing' started on Saturday 1st September at midday, in Florencecourt, County Fermanagh.

The event is a very simple concept – you run a 4.2 mile lap once every hour until all your competitors have dropped out and you are the ‘Last One Standing’. Simple, until you hear about the distances required to win such an event.

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Fifty-five runners started the event at midday on Saturday and it wasn’t until 48 hours later, at midday on Monday 3rd September that the winner was eventually declared.

The final few hours of the event saw Springwell RC’s Peter Cromie and Guillame Calmettes, match each other lap for lap until, after two days and 201.6 miles of running Peter did not start lap 49, leaving Guillame to complete a solo lap and 205.8 miles to win the event.

This was a truly world class exhibition of running from two athletes who have completed some of the most challenging races in the world. In the past two years Peter has finished both the Marathon Des Sables through the Sahara and the Grand 2 Grand Ultra in Arizona.

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Frenchman Guillame, who currently lives in Los Angeles is a veteran of many Ultra races, including the Ultra Trail de Mont Blanc and is the current champion of the Big Dog Backyard Ultra, another ‘Last One Standing’ event that takes place in Bedford County, Tennessee. To win that event he had to run for 59 hours and almost 246 miles to win. Peter and Guillame have just over six weeks to recover from their exertions before they face each other at the 2018 Big Dog Backyard Ultra, which takes place on the 20th October.

Springwell RC had two other members at the event with Fran McFadden running for 15 hours and 63 miles and Alistair Shaw completing 79.8 miles in 18 hours.

The world’s biggest half marathon, the Great North Run took place on Sunday 9th September. This year 10 members of Springwell RC took part in the event raising much needed funds for the Boom Cancer Foundation, Prostate Cancer UK, the Alzheimer’s Society and the Foyle Hospice.

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