Head-on collisions between players are common in physical sports like football or rugby, but they are never the main goal, just a means to an end. In Australia’s Run Nation Championship (RNC), the collision is the one and only goal! Two muscular contestants run at each other at full speed and slam violently to knock each other down. It’s a brutal sport that has steadily been growing in popularity, despite the controversy surrounding it.
Run Nation was inspired by ‘run it straight,’ a social media trend that saw random people running into each other for bragging rights, clout, and online views. There is something about violence that attracts human attention like nothing else, and videos of youths colliding and even suffering injuries have gotten millions of views online. Now, Run Nation Championship is trying to make the sport mainstream, just like Dana White’s UFC did with mixed martial arts and the newer Power Slap.
The premise of Run Nation Championship is simple. Two muscular guys stand a few meters apart and then run at full speed towards each other with no visible protective gear except a mouthguard. The clash usually stands with the winner still standing and shouting, and the loser reeling on the ground, disoriented.
Like boxing, RNC has different weight classes, and most participants, called runners, have a background in combat sports, rugby, or American football. Run Nation co-founder and CEO Tremaine Fernandez, claims that despite the sport’s obviously violent premise, his organization has been working hard to make it as safe as possible for runners.
“We’ve manufactured side-on contact, many markers and rules on the field and rules of engagement, and then on top of that, the player vetting process has just been enormous,” Fernandez told ABC News Australia. “[Front-on contact] was one of the challenges we had with the previous versions … it was a bit ugly.
Fernandez admits that the risk of concussions and other serious injuries still exists, but his organization always makes sure that there are professionals on the sidelines ready to intervene.
“If an injury does occur, we’ve got two doctors on the field who will be assessing what they saw and how to treat that,” the RNC CEO said. “We’ve got two NSW paramedics on the field if it’s for something more severe. We’ve got a team with neurologists, physios, chiropractors … whatever that injury may be, whether it’s just a shoulder, whether it’s a sore arm, whether it’s a hit to the head, not one stone has been left unturned.”
Despite Run Nation’s best efforts to mitigate injuries, some medical experts have said that the brutal collisions expose runners to potentially devastating brain injuries. Sports neurologist Rowena Mobbs has been calling for the sport to be banned, arguing that the risk of brain trauma is too high.
“Certainly every time they run up and clash in that way, there’s likely to be at least a microscopic brain injury,” Dr. Mobbs said. “They are high-risk and harmful activities, and almost having these protocols and practitioners there whilst good overall, I would ask, is it sort of giving an air of reassurance, an illusion or an impression that these activities are safe?”
Despite the controversy around this new sport, Run Nation Championship’s second edition recently sold out the 5,500-seat Hordern Pavilion in Sydney, and the hype isn’t showing any signs of dying out.
