1993 Battersea Park London
This 200 km / 24 hour race was the first time a 24 hour race had been held in Great Britain other than on the track. The 4 km circuit started and finished at the bandstand for ease of recording as this was essentially a 200 km race. Regrettably for those who decided only to do 100 miles, the race finish was at a lonely caravan more than half a mile away from the main centre of activity.
105 walkers started the race, the second largest number in any British ultra distance race.
58 completed the 24 hours, however the first 3 were not required to be on their feet for the full 24 hours, having already reached 200 km. 25 became new Centurions but only 10 of them continued beyond the 100 mile mark. The first new Centurion and also first at 100 miles and overall winner was Alexsey Radionov, who became only the second Russian walker to join our ranks since George Lind C24 in 1908. His 200 km time of 22 hours 4 minutes 39 seconds was more than 50 minutes better than the runner up, Richard Brown C760. One might have thought that Richard would be the first British walker at 100 miles, but as his target was the full 200 km distance he was beaten to the 100 by just over a minute, by Chris Berwick of Leicester who stopped at the 100 mile mark. The whole event was a tremendous success and thought to be one of the best races ever seen in Great Britain, so much so there have been calls for it to be repeated.
