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Former Tiger Qualifies for Ultramarathon Worlds

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Former Tiger Qualifies for Ultramarathon Worlds

BATON ROUGE – The next stop for former LSU distance runner Nick Accardo will be the 2013 World 100k Ultra Marathon Championships in South Africa in the fall after he claimed the men’s national title at this spring’s USA Track & Field 100k Road Race Championships hosted by the Mad City Ultras on Saturday in Madison, Wisc.

Accardo proved to be the nation’s top ultra-marathon runner on this day as he raced a distance approximate to 62 miles in a winning run of 7 hours, 34 minutes, 50.7 seconds. He took the crown by nearly eight minutes over his nearest competitor with an average pace of 7:12 per mile over the course of the 100km race.

Chad Ricklefs of Boulder, Colo., finished runner-up to Accardo at this year’s USATF 100k Road Race Championships with a silver-medal-winning time of 7:42:48.0.

A native of New Orleans, Accardo has earned the right to compete for Team USA at the 2013 World 100k Ultra Marathon Championships that will be held this fall in Durban, South Africa. He also recently claimed a finish of sixth place at the USATF 50k Road Race Championships held on March 3 in Huntington, N.Y.