André Ross leads brilliant team effort in Backyard Ultra

Ultra-running
The national record was shattered by the determination of the last three remaining runners.
Andrew Poolman
  • 1 Day Ago 21 October 2024
An incredible team effort by a determined Namibia have likely succeeded in their goal of breaking into the world’s top-50 out of the 63 countries competing in the Backyard Ultra World Team Championship last weekend.

Fifteen ultra-runners from 63 countries each ran Backyard Ultra in their own country, with the completed laps of each runner adding one point to their total.

Namibia’s runners started off at Gecko Ridge, Swakopmund at 14:00 on Saturday – starting off on hourly laps of 6.7 kilometres for as long as they could go.

By 24 hours later, three Namibians were still in the race.

Ultimately, the host town’s André Ross was the last person standing – pushing his own national record set earlier this year from 22 laps (147 km) to completing lap 26 solo (174.2 km).

Martin Kalwenya gave it his all and broke past the previous national record, but couldn't complete lap 25, while Erich Goeieman (third earlier this year) stopped after an incredible 25 laps. As the last person standing, Ross headed out and completed lap 26 solo!

Danielle Zimny (30, from Windhoek) completed an incredible 16 laps (107 km) to become the last woman standing, taking over from Corné Verwey who had won the Namibian Backyard Ultra earlier this year and again pushed Zimny all the way.

Four runners dropped out after lap 15 (100.5 km) – Elmarie Adriaanse, Corné Verwey, PC Visser and Michelle von Stein, leaving only six runners to start lap 16.

Two runners completed 13 laps (87.1 km), namely Kirsty Brits and Richard Reid, while Katja Dreyer (12) also ran deep into the night.

The Namibian team goal for their debut appearance was to break into the world team championship’s top-50, which is to be reewarded with an invitation to the Backyard Ultra world finals in the USA next year.

The combined kilometres completed by this competition’s runners by late yesterday afternoon (120 800 km) were already more than three trips around the world.

By 16:00 yesterday, a total of 46 countries still had athletes who had not given up yet, including many European countries, Australia, USA, Canada, Mexico, India, Pakistan, Vietnam, Japan, Morocco, Kenya and Cote d’Ivoire.