Irish runner Keith Russell claims second spot in Backyard Masters

Irish runner Keith Russell was part of world record-breaking exploits at the gruelling Race of Champions Backyard Masters where the Navan native was the second-last man standing in Germany.

The race began last Saturday morning and participants had to complete a 6.7km lap every hour, running it as fast or as slow as they wanted, while ensuring they were back at the start line on the hour mark to go again.

Any runner who failed to finish a lap recorded a DNF (did not finish).

Last year, Russell ended up running 63 laps, but this time around he was much stronger throughout in a field of 24 runners, with Jivee Tolentino bringing the Irish representation to two.

While Tolentino suffered a DNF just short of 24 hours of racing and with 28 laps under his belt on the farm and forest tracks, Russell powered past the Irish record of 64 laps, with Belgian Merijn Geerts also in a strong position.

When Japanese runner Terumichi Morishita dropped out after 73 laps and 490km, it meant that just Russell and Geerts remained.

The pair broke the previous world record of 85 laps – set at the Backyard world championships last year in Tennessee – as they set into a fourth night of running.

In the early hours of this morning, Russell's race came to an end at 89 laps. After covering 597km in a time of 66 hours, 14 minutes and 22 seconds, it was then left for Geerts to complete one more lap for victory which he duly did, with an average lap time of 49.05, compared to Russell’s 44.39.

Participation for the epic event was by invitation only, with Russell involved in last year’s race by virtue of his win in the Last One Standing race in Co Down in 2021, where he smashed the Irish record.

Russell started running in 2016 with his daughter Alanna, who had