Fifteen Bermuda runners are preparing to take on some of the world’s greatest endurance athletes in the Backyard Ultra World Team Championships, which is scheduled to start on October 17.

The satellite event sees teams from 74 countries compete simultaneously on their home courses. Bermuda’s challenging course starts and ends at Clearwater Field, Southside, St David’s.

The race follows standard Backyard Ultra rules, with runners completing loops of 4.167 miles every hour on the hour until there is only one runner left standing. Any time between the completion of a loop and the start of the next hour, the participants are allowed to rest, refuel, and hydrate. The goal is simple: to try and do as many 4.167 loops as possible, meaning the race can last multiple days. Teams are aiming to complete the most aggregate laps across all fifteen participants.

Team Bermuda’s runners were selected based on backyard performances during the qualifying window that ran from August 2024 to August 2026, including two stagings of the annual Run Bermuda’s Backyard event and the previous World Team Championships in 2024.

Then in its first appearance in the competition, Bermuda finished 50th with the team completing 220 total laps, beating much larger countries including Pakistan, Egypt and Ecuador.

Now in its second appearance at the world team championships, Team Bermuda hopes to exceed its lap count from two years ago as well as ensure its winner qualifies for the Individual World Championships, held at the home of legendary ultra running race designer Lazarus Lake in Tennessee.

Team Bermuda is led by Jason Williams, who qualified with his 42-loop national record set at the 2025 Individual World Championships, and Florin Teleman, two-times Bermuda champion.

Jason and Florin share the Bermuda course record with 28 ‘yards’ (116 miles). They are joined by Phil Woolins, who ran for 24 hours and was the assist at February’s open event.

The favourites for the World Team Championships are defending champions Belgium, who ran an astonishing 1,147 laps (an average of 76 per runner) in 2024, with three runners setting a then world record 110 loops. Australia, the USA, Japan, France, Poland and New Zealand are also expected to be strong.

The global event will be livestreamed on YouTube at @backyardultrachannel, while a dedicated feed for the Bermuda race will be live at @bermudabackyardultra.

Supporters are welcome but reminded that they cannot provide any assistance to runners (including running alongside them). Volunteers are encouraged. Anyone wishing to volunteer should contact bdabackyardultra@gmail.com

The next open edition of the Bermuda Backyard Ultra will take place on 20th February 2027. The local event has raised over $65,000 for Raleigh Bermuda’s youth programs since its inception.