OCR News Weekly
OCR News Weekly – June 23, 2017
Welcome to OCR News Weekly. Today is Friday, June 23, 2017. I am Margaret Schlachter and thanks for joining the live broadcast or for those listening on their favorite player our recast. Today’s headlines come from OCR Series in Europe, Tough Mudder, Spartan Race, and Ninja Warrior
We start with news from overseas this week.
As we reported last week about the tragic death of Gitte Leurs. The European obstacle racing community especially the Dutch Mud Men came together over the weekend to honor Leurs at the OCR Series final in The Netherlands. Course marshalls were all given roses and black armbands to honor her, a moment of silence was held at the beginning of the race in her memory, and her husband, Mike Helgers ran in her honor with her bib number from the previous weekend along side of family members. OCRTUBE has this tribute to her from OCR Series Finals.
OCRTUBE’s full video is available on their FB page and YouTube and also on our website.
Next we move onto Tough Mudder this week…
Starting at Tough Mudder New England racers will be handed a new beer at the finish line to celebrate their achievement. It was announced yesterday that Guinness Blonde American Lager will be the official beer partner of Tough Mudder for US Races. The partnership is said to be for the rest of the 2017 season according to the press release.
Stay tuned to Mud Run Guide as we talk to Tough Mudder HQ later today and will be releasing some of the top athletes to watch at the upcoming Tough Mudder X event set to be filmed for CBS.
Next we move onto Spartan Race.
Lots of news from Spartan Race this week. First, we start out with a new sponsor for the Spartan Race World Championships. Gatorz Eyewear have signed on as an official sponsor for Spartan Race and the Reebok Spartan Race World Championships. The eyewear company is also a Sponsor of the Reebok CrossFit Games. Spartan Vice President of Global Marketing had this to say about the partnership:
“Gatorz makes some of the most durable, military grade eyewear on the planet, which can stand up to the challenges competitors face along the grueling Spartan Race course,” “We are all about partnering with brands that share our values, passion and love of grit, and we’re excited to have Gatorz on board at our biggest event of the 2017 race season.”
Additionally, Spartan Race announced this week registrations are open for the second AGOGE China for those endurance junkies out there. As well November 4 and 5 of this year Spartan Race is heading back to the roots of Spartan with a trifecta weekend in Sparta, Greece.
“The weekend looks to attract competitors of all ages and skill-sets with four race types including the 5-8-km (3-5-mile)/20-23 Obstacle “Sprint,” 13-15-km (8-10-mile)/24-29 obstacle “Super,” and 20-22-km (12-14-mile) “Beast.” The weekend will also feature a special endurance event reflecting the “Hurricane Heat,” Spartan’s grueling team event, which gives participants a taste of the traditional Spartan Agoge, a rite of passage boys entered at the age of 7to began their rigorous training.”
Find out more details about both on our website.
Next we move onto the Ninja World.
Last week, American Ninja Warrior Nation announced that American Ninja Warrior had introduced some new rules for season nine that is changing things up for the women’s race.
- Rule one: The top five women from each Qualifier will move on to the City Finals.
- Rule two: The top two women from each City Finals will advance to the National Finals.
- Rule three: There will be no wildcards awarded.
Previously, women needed to rank in the top 30 competitors in the Qualifiers, and the top 15 competitors in the City Finals to advance to the next round. The shift in the rules mean that more women will have a chance to prove themselves on the later courses. Comments have been mixed about this new rule change. Check out our post about this early on Facebook and share your thoughts about the rule change.
Onto results:
Looking at some of the results from this past weekend in racing. We start out with Toughest Mudder which made a stop in Whistler Canada over the weekend. In the 8-hour overnight race it was:
Men:
Shaun Stephens Whale.
Women:
Michelle Ford
Allison Tai.
Moving to the United States Savage Race was in Pennsylvannia.
Next moving into Bone Frog Challenge which was in New Jersey:
Spartan Race made a stop outside of Boston:
Moving outside of the US:
Toughest Series made a stop over in London:
Finally, we end with the OCR Series Finals in the Netherlands:
Looking ahead this weekend.
Tough Mudder heads to New England, Rugged Maniac is in New York, Spartan Race is in Idaho, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, Conquer the Gauntlet is in Oklahoma. Indian Mud Run is in Ohio.
Moving outside of the United States, Spartan Race is in Toronto 5K Foam fest is also in Canada in Red Deer and finally Prison Break Race is in Quebec.
Crossing the pond:
The United Kingdom is packed with events this weekend with Total Warrior Challenge in Leeds, The Gauntlet Games in Trent Park, London, and The Suffering in the Midlands to name a few.
and we finish this week with The Farm Run is in Parma Italy this weekend.
For the full list of events check out the mud run guide calendar.
That’s all for this week in OCR and OCR News Weekly powered by Mud Run Guide. Join us next week for all the news and results from around the industry. If you missed the live broadcast you can find this episode on all your favorite podcast players and on YouTube.
This is Margaret Schlachter signing off for this week. Best of luck to all those racing and have a fun and muddy weekend!
Bye bye!