Teenager, 19, dies playing ‘run it straight' as grave fears about newest combat sport realised

News.com.au

27-05-2025

A teenager has died during a private 'run it straight' game as the grave consequences of Australia and New Zealand's hottest new contact sport is realised.
The 19-year-old man was critically injured while playing an impromptu tackle game with friends on Sunday afternoon in Palmerston North, New Zealand.
He was taken to hospital by friends but passed away on Monday night. The teenager has been identified the teenager as Ryan Satterthwaite.
Manawatū area commander Inspector Ross Grantham said the tackle game played by the group of friends was based on 'run it straight', the controversial sport sweeping the southern hemisphere.
'While this was an impromptu game among friends, not a planned event, this tragic outcome does highlight the inherent safety concerns with such an activity,' he said.
'We would urge anyone thinking about taking part in a game or event like this to consider the significant safety and injury risks.'
'RUNIT' has become an online viral sensation over the past few months, and has attracted tens of millions of views on various social media platforms.
Videos of the heavy collisions started doing the rounds on social media in January, with 'Run it Straight Official' and 'RUNIT Championship League' turning the trend into a business.
But the sport has been controversial due to the violent nature of some of the tackles, which by the rugby league textbook would see a player cop a several-week ban.
The sport involves four rounds of players charging at each other along a 10m grass runway, with each competitor taking turns carrying a rugby league ball.
The objective is to either successfully tackle the opponent or run them over in a hard-hitting collision.
The contest ends when a player is either knocked out or concussed.
If both competitors are still standing and have their wits about them after four rounds, a set of judges decide the winner, with the main criteria they are judging being damage.
But the teenager's death is a grave reminder of the risks involved in competing in the dangerous sport.
It also comes after two men were knocked out and required medical attention during a Run It Straight competition at Auckland's Trust Arena last week.
As the sport continues to take off news.com.au spoke to leading sports neuroscientist
Dr Alan Pearce who was baffled at why people would be willing to take the risks.
'I just cannot understand how they could take the most violent aspect of sport (contact) and just turn it into a spectacle where the objective is just to try and knock out or hurt your opponent,' Dr Pearce told news.com.au earlier this year.
'In a lot of these other sports (such as NRL, AFL and rugby union) you're trying to avoid direct contact whereas this is purely running at each other, it's insanity.'
With the latest incident a lot of questions will be asked over why people choose to participate, and Dr Pearce hypothesised it may be down to the notion traditional sports have 'gone soft', something he says has been falsely peddled for years.
'A lot of these people competing have a footy background and if anything it's worse as they have already likely had several head knocks which add up a lot quicker than people realise,' Dr Pearce said.
'Then there's the idea that (contact) sport is getting soft. But that's incorrect, it is actually getting far harder as the athletes are now bigger, stronger and faster than ever before, just look at the injury lists every week.
'We are seeing at all levels of the game higher injury rates but yet people are still complaining that sports are getting soft because we're trying to crack down on things that are causing damage to our brains and bodies.