"Run Nation Championship, as this new sport is known, launched in Australia last year, and is now holding combines ahead of RNC03, its third instalment. Many of the competing athletes seem, from the early video evidence, as wide as they are tall; the risk of injury to their limbs, to their heads, to their brains is obvious."
"Like all new mixed martial arts and contact sports, RNC owes an obvious debt to UFC in the way it's named, structured, and promoted; like UFC and UFC boss Dana White's newer sport, Power Slap, in which two opponents face each other across a table and slap the side of each other's faces as hard as they can until one collapses, Run Nation is not so much a sport as an exploration of the frontier of sporting violence."
"RNC is clearly designed to market the thrill of watching men the size of fridges smash into each other at full pace. But what seems to outsiders like a barbaric modern update of the medieval joust with no armor, shields, or lances to cotton the blows is in fact a familiar sight to those who know the sport that Run Nation is derived from."
Run Nation Championship is an emerging Australian contact sport where two athletes sprint toward each other on a catwalk and collide with maximum force, with one typically knocked down. The sport launched in Australia last year and is now preparing for its third installment. Athletes wear no protective padding or gear, making head and brain injuries obvious risks. The sport follows the naming and promotional structure of UFC and similar ventures like Power Slap, positioning itself as an exploration of sporting violence's frontier. RNC markets the spectacle of large athletes colliding at full speed, drawing comparisons to medieval jousts but without protective equipment. The sport derives from rugby league traditions.
Read at www.theguardian.com
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]