Pre-Race Report: 2016 IAU 24H Asia & Oceania Championships

Pre-Race Report: 2016 IAU 24H Asia & Oceania Championships

Written by Frank Kuo & Nadeem Khan

    The inaugural IAU 24H Asia& Oceania Championship will take place at Kaohsiung on November 19, 2016. Located in southern-western Taiwan and facing the Taiwan Strait, Kaohsiung is by area the largest municipality, and second most populous with a population of approximately 2.77 million. Kaohsiung was the host city of the World Games 2009, a multi-sport event primarily composed of sports not featured in the Olympic Games.

    In the men's race, Australia are coming in as favourites with Barry Loveday (257.593kms), Ewan Horsburgh (249.716km) and John Pearson (241.430km) all have run more than 240km in the last year.

    Kwang Bok Kim (KOR) has a 233km personal best and might try to squeeze into the top 3 with a great run. Takayoshi Shigemi (JPN) is the lone Japanese runner in the field but the one who has run the farthest. With a personal best of 269.225km in 2013 and a distance of 252.030km in 2015, Shigemi will be looking to be on the top of the podium on Sunday.

    In the women's race, Jodie Oborne leads a very strong Australian contingent. With a 230km personal best, she will be looking for high mileage during eth 24 hour time period. Teammate Nikki Wynd will also be looking to make it to the podium having run 221.113km recently.

    The host nation will be led by Yen-Ling Huang with a recent best of 200.792km. There will be two women's team in the championships including Australia as Chinese Taipei also has Ya-Fen Wang and Mong-Chi Lin running in the competition.

       The race route is around the main stadium of world games 2009. It is a 1.750 Kilometer loop and has been measured by Grade A IAAF/AIMS measurer. Seven countries send their national delegations to participate the championship race, there are Australia, New Zealand, Mongolia, Korea, Japan, Philippines and Chinese Taipei.

      Total of 101 runners, including 84 open race runners from 8 countries will run 24H. Besides 24h race, there are 12H, 6H, 24H relay and 6H relay categories, the total number of participants is 450.