Bhaktapur, 24 January: Preparations for the first-ever international-level Backyard Ultra Nepal, which is to be held in Nepal, have been completed. The Backyard Ultra Nepal competition, which is set to begin on Saturday, 12th Magh, is a new one for Nepal, informed Rajiv Shrestha, head of the organizer Fit Nepal.
At a press conference organized by Fit Nepal here today, Chief Shrestha informed that it will start from Sumeru Jungle Resort in Gundu, Bhaktapur at 8 am on Saturday and will end at the same resort via Suryabinayak Ganesh Temple, Pilot Baba Ashram, Gundu Ko Chendo and other areas. Backyard Ultra Nepal will be 7.705 kilometers long. He said that while this sport looks like a marathon, its rules will be very different from marathons.
The player must complete the specified distance in a maximum of one hour. For this, the player must complete at least 12 loops, i.e. 12 rounds. A player who completes a round in an hour can rest for the remaining time and start the next round again. A player who cannot complete the round in an hour will automatically be eliminated from the competition, while to receive a cash prize, he must complete at least 24 loops, i.e. 24 rounds.
The last player to complete 24 loops (24 rounds) in Backyard Ultra Nepal will be declared the winner and will be awarded a cash prize of Rs. 100,000 and a certificate. The second event of the competition will be a 6-kilometer fun run on the same day. The winner of this distance will receive a cash prize of Rs. 3,000 and a gift voucher.
Similarly, a two-kilometer ‘Fit Parivar’ run has also been organized for children under the age of 13. In this, the competing children will have to bring a parent over the age of 18 to participate as a friend. In this too, the winner will be given a cash prize of Rs 2,000 along with a gift voucher, informed the organizer Shrestha.
This type of competition is new to Nepal and the aim is to develop it in Nepal and produce players, said Deepak Thapa, outgoing chairperson of the District Sports Development Committee and coordinator of the program. Thapa said that Backyard Ultra Nepal, where participants can experience natural beauty, listen to the sounds of wild animals and birds in the forest, and observe, will make them physically and mentally healthy.
Shrestha, the head of Fit Nepal, said that the competition, which was started by Gray Central Lazarus Lake in the United States in 2010, aims to produce players in Nepal and develop them so that internationally competitive players can participate from Nepal. Team Nepal-2025 will be selected with the start of the competition, and this year, six matches will be held in Bhaktapur and Pokhara, three each, two months apart.
Stating that the winning player will be selected to participate in the Team World Championship to be held in 2026 from Nepal’s team, he said that the player who completes more than 24 loops by participating from the Nepal team will be selected to participate from Nepal in the World Championship to be held in October every year in Tennessee, USA in 2027. Earlier, a Belgian player completed 110 loops in the competition held in the United States and became the world champion.
