Sichel looking to end season on a high

Orkney-based ultra marathon runner William Sichel, 63, is in Privas, near Valence, in the Ardeche region of France, for the French 6 Day Championships starting tomorrow, Sunday, at 3pm UK time, and finishing next  Saturday at 3pm.

This event has attracted a capacity entry of 170 runners and walkers, so competition over the 144 hours will be fierce.

William has a lifetime best six day performance of 532 miles set in 2008 at a race in Hamm, Germany.

“I’ve managed to get over 500 miles in six days, eight times in my career so far,” William said.

“My best as an over 60 is 473 miles which I ran in Arizona in 2014, so I’ll certainly be looking to better that.”

William is fresh from running his 100th ultra event at the Brugg 24 hour road race in Switzerland just a month ago.

“That race went really well with my best 24 hour run for seven years and seven age group records too, so I was really pleased with that,” he added.

William has currently set 190 running records at World, British and Scottish level, including age-group records.

He runs to highlight the benefits of exercise for the over 60s as well as raise money for the CLAN cancer support charity.