Ultra-distance walker Andrew Titley completed his 17th Centurion Walk at the weekend.
To achieve Centurion status, 100 miles must be walked in 24 hours or under.
Andrew, along with fellow Isle of Man Veteran Athletes’ Club members Russell Walker and Colin Moore, were the Manx representatives in Gloucester, part of the festival of endurance athletics in which Sarah Webster so nearly achieved a 40-mile running world record on Saturday.
Webster completed 40 miles in a time of 4 hours 26 minutes 50 seconds, missing the long-standing women's world record by only seven seconds. That record was set by British athlete Carolyn Hunter-Rowe in Barry in 1993. Titley completed his 100 miles, which is 381 laps of the track, in a time of 23 hours 32 minutes and 2 seconds.
Russell retired having completed just under 84 miles, while Colin stopped after just over 50 miles.
Andrew has achieved Centurion status in events all over the world.
To complete one is a tremendous accomplishment, to do it 17 times is truly phenomenal.
- Another athlete with Isle of Man connections who completed an ultra event at the weekend is Sara Ismail-Sutton, who has impressed in much shorter races on the track this summer. She pushed the aforementioned Sarah Webster very hard in the Isle of Man 10,000 metres track championships a few weeks ago. Formerly a student at Castle Rushen High School, she currently splits her time between the island and Durham, where she is a member of Durham City Harriers.
Having dabbled in running for a number of years and showing a lot of promise, the former Castletown and Colby footballer is now much more focused on training and racing, and has been very impressive in races ranging from 1,500 metres to Ultras in recent times.
DAVID GRIFFITHS