Earlier this week, Red Frog Events, producers of Warrior Dash, announced they had a 2016 partnership with The Obstacle Racing World Championships. Since Warrior Dash was already a OCRWC qualifier, it left some asking what this “partnership” actually meant.
From the press release, we learned that the top 10 men and women now automatically qualify for OCRWC. In 2014 and 2015, “All Qualifiers of the Warrior Dash World Championships” qualified for OCRWC, which was top 25 men and women at every Warrior Dash.
Red Frog never actually said the words “We aren’t doing the Warrior Dash World Championship anymore” in the press release, so we reached out and asked them the direct question.
Lauren Gardner, Operations and Public Relations Manager at Red Frog told us:
“There are no plans for a third-annual Warrior Dash World Championship in 2016. Our focus for the 2016 Warrior Dash season will be dedicated to continuing to provide our high-quality festival experience and challenging obstacles to our mass participant base, while continuing to bring added fun and excitement to every step of the event.
We will continue to host competitive waves at each location. The top three men and women will be awarded and announced on-stage at the event during an awards ceremony, and highlighted on our social media accounts. Our top 10 finishers will qualify for the OCR World Championships, given our new partnership and initiatives with them this upcoming season. With this change, we have plans for a heightened festival and course atmosphere that will give Warriors the ultimate active and social weekend experience they continue to ask and expect from us.”
That clears that up.
The next person we reached out to was Max King. Taking home $30,000 each year the event was held, he may have the most to lose with the event disappearing. We asked him if he had heard the news yet.
“I hadn’t heard. Not totally unsurprised by it though. It was great while it lasted but I knew it wouldn’t continue more than a few years unless they were getting a good return out of it. It’s too bad because it was a great addition to the broad category of obstacle racing. I think there is something important about having several very different championships that cater to different athletes. Warrior Dash was about speed and finesse over brute strength. I guess we’ll miss that aspect of the sport going forward. Back to the party.”
Max may never again see a $30k payday. He seems to be taking it well.
You can check out our video coverage of the last WDWC you may ever see.
Warrior Dash World Championship 2015Warrior Dash World Championship offers $30,000 for first place. On a course that’s just under 4 miles and caters more towards fast feet than upper body strength the normal ‘kings of OCR’ were quite literally given ‘a run for their money’.
Posted by Obstacle Racing Media on Wednesday, October 14, 2015
Matt B. Davis
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