William Sichel, Scotland’s leading ultra distance internationalist, ran away with the Hamm 6 Day track race, winning by over 30 miles and recording a total of 532.56 miles.

Held near Dortmund in Germany last week, it was a third consecutive personal best distance for the 54-year-old Orcadian, and a 6% improvement on his victory in Monaco last November.

This distance gives William the overall Scottish 6 Day record (Modern), the Great Britain Age Group record and is the second best performance in the World this year overall.

All meaningful opposition had evaporated by the end of day one when Germany’s leading athlete Wolfgang Schwerk decided to withdraw.  William went on to win by over 172 miles from the 2nd placed finisher, Trond from Norway.

“I was disappointed when Schwerk withdrew as I had gone to Germany for a head-to-head with the world leader but this wasn’t to be.”

Asked what the future now held for him at this event William responded:

“I really believe now that the sky’s the limit and a distance in excess of 600 miles is in me. The ancient record set in 1882 is now well within my grasp as well.  The scale of my improvement is unprecedented in this sport and many more records are now at my disposal.”

As usual William is indebted to his crew members Alan Young, Tim Rainey and Marja Trimbos without whose help his performance would have been impossible.

William is grateful to sponsors: Myprotein, Loganair & The Orcadian