CurraNZ powering the New Zealand Backyard Ultra Team at World Satellite Champs

CurraNZ is proud to be sponsoring the New Zealand Backyard Ultra Team at this year's World Satellite Champs, on October 19, in Otematata , Waitaki Valley in the South Island, where we're quietly predicting a top-five finish is well within our brilliant team's grasp.

The guys and gal will be looking to improve on the Kiwis' 11th place two years ago, where they finished with a combined distance of 497 loops, ( an average of 33 laps apiece).

This year's team is expected to extend that distance significantly, as the selected representatives' best distances total is 657 laps - which would have placed them sixth in 2022.  

The event is held every second year in a satellite format where teams across the world meet in their own countries and run over official courses in synchronisation with the rest of the world.

Everyone starts at the same time (unfortunately, this means a 12am start for the NZ team) and will loop the 6.71km course continuously until the second-to-last runner stops. The last person standing will do one more loop to finish the event.

A backyard ultra is a different breed of ultra-marathon, where the last runner is forced to finish at the point when no-one else is taking part - so you need a wing man (or woman) to clock up distance, making your competitors your ally.

There were several qualification events since 2022 that gained golden tickets into the NZ team with CurraNZ ambassador Sam Harvey taking first at Krayzies and CurraNZ fan Jeremy Pelvin winning the Arrowtown Backyard Ultra.

Anthony Kerr-Taylor (part of the CurraNZ Purple Tribe at Tarawera) won the inaugural Kings Backyard with 52 loops, a personal best and good enough to put him near the top of the team's best numbers.

Through out the year the leaderboard and team qualifiers changed numerous times and 40 laps was the magical number to gain a spot to represent NZ.

Julia Chamberlain, another CurraNZ fan, scored a spot but Jane McAlpine just slipped off the board with only a few months to go. 

It's also no surprise that many on the team are already ardent CurraNZ fans, having found our supplement plays a significant role in their recovery and performance. 

We'll be cheering the team on to Backyard glory and wish them all the best!