BySamantha Noble

East Midlands

Updated 3 hours ago

Three women scooped the top spots in an ultra-marathon race in Derbyshire, which organisers said made it a first for the event in this country.

The Rasselbock Backyard Ultra, in which competitors run a 4.16-mile course every hour, on the hour, until only one person is left standing, was held at the Hardwick Estate on Saturday.

There were 141 competitors, and 21% of them were women and 79% men, and race organisers said this was the first occasion an all-female podium was recorded in the UK for a backyard ultra.

Matt Dillon, from Hardwick Hall, said: "Given our history and connection with Bess of Hardwick, it feels fitting that female runners made their mark on the event here."

The Hardwick Estate, now owned by the National Trust, was once home to Bess of Hardwick, who was described as a "bold businesswoman, house builder, mother and wife," and widely regarded as the second most powerful woman of the Tudor age.

Speaking about Saturday's event, Dillon added: "It promised to be an exciting event and for it to have achieved records, made it an even more memorable weekend.

"This was an extraordinary event organised by Rasselbock and we were very pleased to have been part of it."

The event organisers said Becky Atkinson, from west Wales, won the competition and despite it being her first Rasselbock Backyard Ultra race, she completed 40 hours of continuous running, reaching a total distance of 166.4 miles.

Second and third place went to Hayley Wilson, from Worksop in Nottinghamshire, and Hollie Jones, from Easby in Yorkshire.

Eric Keeler, the event organiser, said: "We went through thousands of results worldwide and an all-female winning line-up has only happened once before - in Iceland.

"Becky's 40-hour debut, and a female top three, was an exciting result for the event."

He said the Hardwick event was uniquely challenging.

"It features the smallest start line across the series in this country due to single-track trails and estate gates," he added.

"Runners navigate a course through a farm and share the path with sheep and cattle, which is always a fun experience, especially at night!"

More than 700 Rasselbock Backyard Ultra events take place globally each year, with 55 held across the UK.

The event comes after recent BBC Sport article examined whether women are better at endurance running than men.

It said there was on average a 10% to 12% performance gap between males and females in running distances up to the marathon. This is because men are generally stronger and built with a bigger aerobic engine.

However, as distance increases, those physical advantages appear to become less relevant and the gap starts to narrow.

The "gender pace gap" diminishes to 0.25% in 100-mile races, according to a study, external of more than 10 years of amateur ultra-race conducted by RunRepeat, in collaboration with the International Association of Ultrarunners.

Prof Andy Jones, in endurance performance at the University of Exeter, said there were three potential physiological explanations as to why women could perform better over long distances or durations.

They are:

• Fat metabolism. Women have higher fat stores and burn it more efficiently, giving them a steady energy source for longer

• Muscles. Women have more oxygen-efficient fibres, known as "slow twitch", that are better suited for endurance activities

• Fatigue resistance. Women retain more strength over hours of endurance exercise

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