The OMM-supported athlete has abandoned his double Bob Graham attempt for the second time

Endurance runner Ellis Bland has abandoned his attempt to set a new fastest time for a double Bob Graham Round.

The Bowland athlete had remained ahead of his schedule until the early hours of Sunday but began to slip behind his planned times as the morning progressed.

He gave up the challenge on Rossett Pike shortly after 9am, having already completed a full round at 7.22pm on Saturday. He had summited 23 of the peaks for a second time before pulling out of his run. Bland had dropped almost 1½ hours behind the schedule he had set himself to break Nicky Spinks’s existing record.

A brief statement on the Open Tracking website said: “Unfortunately, after a fantastic effort to regain lost time and dig even deeper, Ellis has made the difficult decision to call it a day at Rossett Pike.”

It is the second year running Bland has had to abandon the double Bob Graham round. A foot injury during his 2020 attempt led to his withdrawal.

Spinks retains her record with a time of 45hrs 30mins, set in 2016.

The first recorded double Bob Graham Round was achieved by Boyd Millen in 1977 in 52hrs 30mins. In 1979 Roger Baumeister became the first to complete the challenge in less than 48 hours, finishing in 46hrs 34mins. Eric Draper ran the double round in 1995 in a time of 50hrs 35. Yorkshire runner Nicky Spinks set the current record five years ago with her time of 45hrs 30mins.

Since then, Tom Hollins has completed the double round in a time of 52hrs 30mins; Stuart Walker in 51hrs 18mins, and Gwynn Stokes in a time of 54hrs 30mins.

The challenge involves two circuits of the Bob Graham Round, totalling 84 summits over 132 miles (212km), with more than 52,000ft (15,850m) of ascent. The original round was set by the Keswick guesthouse owner who gave the challenge its name, in 1932. Only the seven above people are known to have completed the course over the Lake District fells twice in a continuous round.