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 explained 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:
- Australia
- The Continent/Europe
- Malaysia*
- New Zealand
- South Africa
- United Kingdom**
- United States of America
*The last centurion qualifier in Malaysia was in 2007. There is no news as of October, 2017 when the next centurion qualifier will be held in Malaysia.
**People who qualify as a centurion in the United Kingdom are often referred to as British Centurions.
Walking rules
If you have watched racewalking you probably know racewalkers must obey the following two rules:
- they can not have two feet off the ground at the same time;
- when the heel of the walker’s front foot hits the ground, the leg must be straight and remain straight until the leg is vertical.
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.
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: AU for Australia, CC for Europe/The Continent, 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 11,341st person to gain centurion status in the UK and the 1001st to gain the status in Australia.