Kiwi Quartet Initially Selected for the 2025 World Athletics Championships
How far can you run in a day? No, seriously, how far? That’s the question a brave crew of ultra-runners will attempt to answer this weekend at the New Zealand 24-Hour Championships, held as part of the Sri Chinmoy 6-12 and 24-Hour Races at AUT Millennium in Auckland.
The starting gun goes at 9 am on Saturday, 10 May, with hundreds of laps of the 400m track on the horizon and a long night to endure, runners will push their bodies to the limits until the race concludes 24 hours later at 9 am on Sunday. To keep things interesting (and easier on the legs), the runners switch direction every four hours, just one of the many quirks that is 24-hour racing.
In the men’s field, Keith Burrows returns with serious credentials, having won this race in 2020, 2022, and 2023, and finishing second last year. He’ll face stiff competition from Andrew McDowall and Wayne Botha, both of whom represented New Zealand at the 2023 and 2024 World and Asia-Oceania Championships. Expect these three to battle it out with impressive mileage and steady resolve.
On the women’s side, Dawn Tuffery, the 2022 NZ champion and a recent world champs rep in Taiwan, brings both experience and determination. Joining her are Jade Overy, who claimed third in last year’s champs, and Vivian Cheng, off the back of her 2024 Asia-Oceania 24-hour appearance in 2024.
Support crews and spectators will line the home straight, setting up tents, tables, and maybe even a kettle or two, as they prepare to cheer their athletes on through the night. It’s a long shift, but the energy, camaraderie and quiet intensity of a 24-hour race make it one of the most special events on the calendar.
Two hefty benchmarks loom as targets for the top-minded athletes: Simon Cochrane’s men’s race record of 236.837km, set just last year, and Carolyn Tassie’s long-standing 222.222km women’s mark, untouched since 2004.