RunIt: From backyard collision game to a cultural lightning rod

RNZ News

2 days ago

Experts have called for RunIt to be banned.
Photo:
RNZ Pacific / RunIt / Supplied
RunIt, originally a backyard variation of bull rush, involves two players sprinting and colliding, and it has evolved into a global phenomenon, albeit a controversial one.
Experts have called for
RunIt to be banned
and a 19-year-old from Palmerston North
died during a backyard RunIt-style event
.
RunIt safety spokesperson Billy Coffey told RNZ earlier this year that the two
people who got concussion at an Auckland event used "illegal" techniques
.
"We had two concussions out of our eight runners, and those two concussions, the first one was from a guy who was an American-based and he led with his head, and the second one was the same concept."
Competitors were required to wear mouthguards, he said, but headgear was optional.
RUNIT Auckland. Trusts Stadium.
Photo:
Andrew Cornaga / Photosport
"We've got an ambulance on site. We've got liability. Everything's covered. There's waivers, medicals beforehand, medicals after. There's an ambulance on site."
Veteran sports commentator and former rugby league player
Fauono Ken Laban
told
Pacific Waves
he thought RunIt was a "dreadful event".
"I think the so-called courage and toughness that they try to sell the event on, I think, is fake," he said.
"Those kind of contacts and those kind of tackles in rugby union and and in rugby league were outlawed years ago.
"I'm not even going to call it a sport, because it's not an established sport."
But not everyone agrees.
Auckland-based Pacific community leader Pakilau Manase Lua said he could see the attraction for Polynesian males in particular.
"It's the attraction of being able to use their God-given natural abilities to be explosively impactful and physical in a sport. And I'll call it a sport - that lends itself to big guys that can run fast and are willing to put their bodies on the line," he said.
"We can talk about the ethical stuff around possible injuries and all that sort of stuff. But there's an element of risk in any sport, even rugby league, we all know - they're all well governed. They're all structured and have policies, protocols, procedures, and all that sort of stuff around head injuries.
"But the attraction is also the money."
He said his personal view is "you can't ban it". He said he does not condone the backyard ones that don't have a lot of safety precautions.
"But those that are well organised, that have medical staff in place and that people know the risks - I think if you ban it, you'll make it go underground.
"These are things that a lot of young people should be educated about, the risks...guided around particularly head injuries, because at the end of the day, you see the same collisions in the NFL, in the NRL and rugby union, across any sport, boxing.
"And then you've got other sports, like the Nitro Circus, where they've got guys doing three double somersaults on motorbikes that you can instantly get killed, break your neck, crush your spine if it goes wrong. So there's element of risk in anything.
"But I think it's about education, organisation and safety."
Auckland-based Pacific community leader Pakilau Manase Lua says RunIt allows Pasifika men the opportunity "to use their God-given natural abilities to be explosively impactful and physical in a sport".
Photo:
Andrew Cornaga / Photosport
Niu FM broadcaster and social media personality Regan Foai said he is supportive of the organisation running it.
"We've been doing this for a long time - it just hasn't been put on the scale that it is now," he said.
"Some of us just enjoy the competitiveness of who is the stronger person on the field, I guess, and it's entertaining for us to watch.
"It's just, I guess, part of our nature especially when it comes to the rugby scene as well."
Foai recently spoke with New Zealand RunIt heat winner Robbie Tuluatua on-air and asked about the safety debate.
"I was like there's a lot of people in the media saying about safety and all that stuff.
"He said, 'man, we got briefed well before we got put onto the field; everyone was checked prior, and there was paramedics there; everything was put into place'.
"I think a lot of people just jumping in the gun and not understanding...people just think that we're just running it straight in to each other, and that's it."
Associate Professor Lefaoali'i Dr Dion Enari, an expert in sports management, now serves as the Associate Professor of Pacific Heritage at Unitec. He warned that banning the sport could lead to unintended consequences.
"You only have to look at it similar to the laws that ban gang patches in public. Doing that hasn't removed gangs from society; in fact, it's actually made it harder for the public to identify who's in a gang and who's not.
"So I do believe that it runs the risk of making RunIt Straight go underground, and it being done in even more unsafe circumstances, with no medical personnel there, no sanctions, no safety rules of engagement in place."
He said anything can always be improved, but it's about having conversations with the different experts to get advice on safety measures and how it could be done more safely.
He said for Pasifika born and raised in the 90s, it was a pastime a lot of them had done as kids.
"Especially those of us who had limited resources, a lot of us would then go and make our own fun by playing this, by partaking in RunIt Straight.
"It has a childhood nostalgia for a lot of Pacific people. And the physicality aspect of it is also what draws a lot of Pacific people to want to participate in it."
New Zealand Management Academies south campus manager John Loau works closely with rangatahi and said they are always looking at clips online.
"They're quite entertained with that, with the clashes and when the bodies collide, and the impact that that makes.
"You just can't help it when some of the younger ones who are attending training at NZMA that when they look at the thing - well, what do you think, sir?
"I said, 'Well, those are some tough bodies. Those are some tough hits. Do you understand the impact on that?' And we just try to walk them through the conversations of how that impacts them physically, and then some of the other injuries that could manifest themselves. And from a mental health standpoint as well."
He said Pacific people are physical athletes - built for travelling across the oceans, climbing trees without any aid, or even digging in warfare.
"It's really built in our DNA and as our evolution as a people."
He also said it's compared with bull rush and able to be organised in a backyard.
"Because of that low entry point, it makes it unfortunately accessible to many people to try to take that on. I guess everyone thinks it's a bit harmless until someone actually gets injured.
And that's one of the reasons why it's not just prevalent in our communities, but just throughout Aotearoa New Zealand, that people are very entertained by it, because they can participate in this activity, because there is a very low entry point.
"So is it an acceptable sport? If people think it is, I challenge those who support it to show us how one trains for this particular sport.
"I haven't seen much of that which is one of the biggest criticisms we see with established sports like the UFC, like in the NRL, like in the rugby union space and others."