Ultra Athletes Get Set for Their “Olympics”
In a year where the Olympic decathlon Champion is hailed as the “greatest all round athlete” another event will be held claiming to be “the World’s toughest athletics competition”.
On 21-22 August, Gateshead International Stadium will play host to the World Championships in Ultra Multi Events. What are the ultra multi events?
Icosathlon (double decathlon, 20 events) for men
Tetradecathlon (double heptathlon, 14 events) for women
“The competition has been held for the past 23 years and originates in the Baltic countries, especially Finland,” states the competition organiser, Richard Hunter.
Athletes will be travelling from all corners of the World to take part in the longest two days of combined event athletics you can imagine. To give you a feel for the event, imagine the ten decathlon events spread over two days, then add an additional track or field event between each of them – literally doubling the number of events.
The competitors run all the track events up to 10,000m and all field events over the usual two days. The event requires speed, endurance, the technical skills to take part in all jumping and throwing events as well as serious mental toughness.
This is the third time the event will staged in the North East having been introduced to the UK by Hunter at Hexham 1999. Since then it has taken the World of combined events by storm and competitions have been held in the USA, Australia and other parts of Europe.
So far, 50 athletes have signed up - from 12 countries including Japan, Australia the USA and nine other European nations. While the serious decathletes and heptathletes are in Athens, there’s no doubt, that this summer will produce some great all round performances at Gateshead International Stadium.
For more information go to www.teamdecathlon.com/ultra or www.dmultis.org
Back to 