backyard is famous for the great duels
when two stubborn individuals lock horns
and neither will give up.
.
these contests of the will can happen at championship races
or can spontaneously combust at any backyard.
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the first of these was the memorable 19 hour duel between jeremy ebel of the us and the great johan steene of sweden at the world championships
.a few years later it was harvey lewis of the us and frenchman guillaume calmettes going toe to toe for 26 hours at the championships.
both of these matchups resulted in world records.
.
but the most famous stubbornfest happened at the suffolk backyard in england,
where john stocker and matt blackburne went after each other manno a manno for an incredible 44 hours after the other runners had all retired from the contest,
resulting in the first backyard ever over 80 hours.
(there is a really cool video about this race)
.
currently joshua toh and deric lau have been the last two in action for 21 hours for the singapore national championship.
.
and
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fida muhammad and jamal said have been the last paskastanis for 20 hours.
.
no one knows when these contests will end,
but both of them have already surpassed their national records.
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in keeping with the all or nothing philosophy of the backyard
only one can win.
if there is a tie
it is declared that there is no winner,
and any awards or prizes are forfeit!!!
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in each of the current duels taking place
(7 more that have lasted between 3 and 10 hours are currently taking place)
only one can win the right to represent their country in the world championships.
if there were a tie,
even if the distance was a new world record
neither would receive a golden ticket to the world championships…