New Zealand Centurions

Centurionism

Table of contents

  1. What is a centurion?
  2. Walking rules
  3. Designation
  4. New Zealand centurions

1. What is a centurion?

Put simply, a centurion is a person who has walked 100 miles in 24 hours or less, subject to some restrictions on the walking technique as explain in the section below. The restrictions vary slightly from country to country but other than that the same definition of a centurion is used in all countries or groups of countries with centurion organisations.

The walk must be in an officially recognised event, known as a centurion qualifier, and because of the restrictions on the walking technique, the event must be judged.

A person is entitled to be a centurion in more than one country or group of countries. Currently a person can be a centurion in

Notes

2. Walking rules

If you have watched racewalking you probably know racewalkers must obey the following two rules:

The first rule is easy to obey and is enforced in centurion walking. The second rule is very difficult to obey for more than about 50 kilometres and is relaxed a little in centurion walking. The extent to which the rule is relaxed varies slightly from country to country. In New Zealand, the leading leg can be bent slightly provided the walker does not gain an advantage from any springing action.

3. Designation

When a person becomes a centurion they are given the designation Cn. The C standards for Centurion and n is the count on the number of people who have achieved centurion status in the country or group of countries. For example, a designation of C39 means the person was the thirty-ninth person to become a centurion in the country. If there is possible confusion as to which country is being referred to, a prefix is added: Aus for Australia, Eur or Con for Europe, Mal for Malaysia, NZ for New Zealand, SA for South Africa, UK for United Kingdom, and US for United States of America. A person can have more than one designation. Thus a person with the designations of UK C11341 and Aus C1001 would mean the person was the 11,341-st person to gain centurion status in the UK and the 1001-st to gain the status in Australia.

4. New Zealand centurions

When the person satisfies the requirements of a centurion in New Zealand, they are known as a New Zealand centurion. The person does not have to be a New Zealander. As of October 11, 2017, twenty-four walkers from six countries have qualified as New Zealand centurions: nine from New Zealand, five from England, four from Australia, three from the Netherlands, two from Belgium, and one from Germany. Two-thirds of the walkers were men and one third women.

The table below lists the following information for these centurions: their centurion number, their name, their country of residence at the time of the qualification, their sex, the time they took to complete the 100 miles, and their year of qualification.

Designation Name Country M/F Time Date
C1Ross PilkingtonNew Zealand M23:23:401968
C2Gerald MandersonNew Zealand M21:37:311998
C3Norm MorrisNew Zealand M22:32:471998
C4Sandra BrownEngland F19:00:471999
C5Bob LeeNew Zealand M22:06:262000
C6Carol BairdAustralia F20:55:462001
C7Parminder BhattiEngland M21:18:582001
C8Jill GreenEngland F22:18:082001
C9Herbert NeubacherGermany M22:18:082001
C10Susan ClementsEngland F23:00:052001
C11Geoff TranterEngland M23:04:372001
C12Maureen MetcalfeNew Zealand F23:47:082001
C13Peter BaillieNew Zealand M22:15:322004
C14Geoff HainAustralia M23:37:242005
C15Rudy SchoorsBelgium M21:37:252010
C16Andrew ShelleyNew Zealand M21:37:552010
C17Caroline MestdaghBelgium F22:51:462010
C18Cliff HarrisonNew Zealand M23:22:422013
C19Richard McChesneyNew Zealand M23:41:002013
C20Sharon ScholzAustralia F22:24:282015
C21Justin ScholzAustralia M22:24:282015
C22Marco BloemertsNetherlands M22:43:302017
C23Gertrude AchterbergNetherlands F23:29:452017
C24Arie KandelaarsNetherlands M23:36:292017

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Last modified: October 11, 2017.