Helene Diamantides

Helene Diamantides is a highly respected fell runner; whose accomplishments merit her inclusion in the category of the greatest ever in the sport's history.

Early life

Helene Diamantides was born in North Yorkshire, but she spent most of her childhood outside of England. She lived in Ghana and later in Greece where as a teenager she competed internationally in the pentathlon and her running ability was encouraged and developed. At the age of sixteen, she completed her first marathon. In 1982 Diamantides moved to Durham (England) to study for a degree in education. It was through the University of Durham's running club that she first began fell running. Over the next five years she competed in various fell races, including the Karrimor Mountain Marathon.

Fell Running Achievements

In 1987 Diamantides completed her first Bob Graham Round (BG); which is to run convert|72|mi|km over 42 Lake District peaks in under twenty-four hours. Later in the same year she and fellow fell-runner Alison Wright (who is the youngest woman to complete the BG) went to Nepal to attempt to break the Crane brother's record for running from Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu. This is a convert|167|mi|km|sing=on route which includes convert|32000|ft|m of descent and convert|46000|ft|m of descent. Both women completed the route in 3 days, 10 hrs and 8 mins: twenty-four hours faster than the record and twelve hours faster than a team of Sherpas who were also attempting to set a new record.

In 1988 Diamantides competed internationally in a number of mountain races. She won both the women's events in the Mount Cameroon race and the Mount Kinabalu race; and she came third in the convert|100|mi|km|sing=on Hogger 'Super Marathon' in Algeria. In the same year she also set a new women's record for the BG: 20 hrs, 17 mins.

The next year Diamantides decided to attempt a feat of running no one had tried before. Her ambition was to complete in one summer all three of the classic British twenty-four hour rounds: the English Bob Graham Round, the Welsh Paddy Buckley Round, and the Scottish Ramsay Round. The first was the Paddy Buckley which was completed in 20hrs 8 mins; beating the men's record (held by Adrian Belton) by two hours. One month later Diamentides ran the Ramsay Round. She was then only the sixth person to successfully complete it and did so with a time of 20 hrs 24 mins. By coincidence Adrian Belton had also decided to attempt all three rounds that summer. In a spirit of camaraderie typical of fell running, Diamantides and Belton ran the final BG leg together. It took them 19 hrs 11 mins; which meant not only had Diamantides completed all three rounds in seventy-two days, but that she had also broken her own BG record by just over an hour.

Diamantides greastest feat came in 1992. The 'Dragon's Back' was a new convert|220|mi|km|sing=on five-day race the length of Wales, taking in the some of the most challenging mountainous terrain the country has to offer. It was supposed to become an annual race, but because of its severity (the Swedish ultra runner Rune Larsson, who had once run convert|162|mi|km in twenty-four hours abandoned any any ambition to win the race by the end of the first day), it only occurred once. Diamantides entered the race with Martin Stone; she and Stone won the race in 38 hrs 38 mins. The extent of Diamantides achievement can be seen by the fact that the strong all-male pairing of Mark McDermott and Adrian Belton came second with a time of 39 hrs, 10 mins (McDermott is one the greatest fell runners of recent years, having the distinction of running seventy-six Lake District peaks in 24 hours).

Sources

* All information taken from: Askwith, Richard, "Feet in the Clouds", Chapter 29, London: Aurum Press, 2005.
* [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/article2880423.ece Timesonline]
* [http://www.sportsister.com/?p=947 Gear for Girls Owner Alison Wright at the age of 21, broke the world record for running from Everest Base Camp to Kathmandu; 188 miles and 42,000 ft of ascent completed in 3 days and 10 hours with her friend Helene Diamantides. The record has recently been broken by The North Face sponsored athlete Lizzy Hawker together with Stephen Pyke.]
* [http://www.ultrafondus.fr/content/view/1390/40/ Ultrafondus]