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A video posted online shows medics coming to the aid of a man who is knocked to the ground about a second into an international event showcasing a new “sport” created in Australia.
On the ground is former NRL player Kevin Proctor, who took part in an exhibition competition in Dubai over the weekend, for what its promoters call the “world’s fiercest, new collision sport”.
RUNIT was created by a group of Melbourne friends less than a year ago, but the event in Dubai follows competitions in Melbourne and Auckland that have taken place in recent months, after the initiative gained traction on social media.

RUNIT Championship League may have gained almost 200,000 followers on Instagram in a short time, but not everyone is a fan, with concerns around the safety of the competition.

What is RUNIT?

“Hit hard, stand your ground and inflict damage”, that is the key to winning RUNIT, according to a video on the league’s YouTube channel.

A man on the grounds of a grass playing field surrounded by four other men wearing black.

There are concerns about the dangers that the competition poses to not only the health and safety of those participating, but also to anyone who might copy what they see in these competitions. Source: Getty / Hannah Peters

The video shows vision of big hits and tackles in rugby games alongside sounds of bodies colliding with force.

It was posted in the lead-up to the Melbourne competition at the end of April and presented by Melbourne Storm player Nelson Asofa-Solomona, who is understood to have since distanced himself from the league.
“The rules of the game are simple, with a run zone of 10 metres, one player carries the ball, and the other defends; if you’re running, the job is simple, you run it straight,” he said in the video.
The video explains that four rounds are played with judges deciding the winner as the person who dominated contact the most.

The league advertised the winner of the Dubai event received $200,000.

Who created RUNIT?

Sports player agent Lou Sticca explained in a social media post that RUNIT was “the brainchild of a dynamic team comprising four Samoan Australian brothers, a cousin, and two Italian Australians and a close mate of ours (CT), all hailing from Dandenong”.

He announced his involvement with RUNIT in the same LinkedIn post about a month ago.

The concept has been inspired by a game — Run it Straight — the creators and many other Pacific Islanders have played in their backyards since childhood.

What are the concerns?

Annitta Siliato, executive director of the Concussion Legacy Foundation Australia, said this competition brought a lot of the work around reducing brain injury backwards.
“I just cannot believe we’ve got this competition, which is encouraging people to run towards each other to knock each other out,” she said.
“It could cause death, and it could cause serious brain injury.”

Siliato said she was aware of people having seizures after participating in activities similar to RUNIT competitions and said repeated head knocks could cause chronic traumatic encephalopathy.

A man is running on the green field as people watch and cheer around him.

Both competitors run towards each other in RUNIT, one with the ball and one without. Source: Getty / Hannah Peters

Siliato said a lot of public education and work with different sporting codes had been done in recent years, and “activities like this really bring us backwards”.

The AFL’s concussion panel, last month, ordered West Coast Eagles player Jeremy McGovern to retire on medical grounds.
Siliato said she was also worried that young people were being influenced by what they had seen of RUNIT on social media and may copy what they see online.

In May, Radio NZ reported that a 19-year-old from Palmerston North city on New Zealand’s North Island died after being critically injured playing a tackling game based on RUNIT.

Brain scans

When asked about safety by a Dubai radio station in the lead-up to the United Arab Emirates event, Sticca, who was the head of the delegation at the event, said: “We’ve developed some very, very quick procedures and we’re developing these as we go.”
He told Dubai Eye 103.8 that participants were screened before taking part.
“We screen every participant with full medicals, including brain scans. We certainly don’t want anyone participating who has any issues with their residual health. We check the athletes after the event as well,” Sticca said.

“We’ve had concussion experts that we’ve engaged to help us identify ways to add value to the sports.”

A man standing on a grass field holds a rugby ball while looking down at another man on his back, laying on the grass.

Competitors get four runs, and judges decide the winner. Source: Getty / Hannah Peters

Sticca urged people not to emulate what they see RUNIT competitors do.

“We don’t encourage kids to be playing this in the backyard,” he said.
“We don’t encourage men and women to be running at each other that don’t have the training required to undergo this.”
SBS News has contacted the RUNIT Championship League and Sport and Recreation Victoria for comment.
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