One of the best mountain and path runners on the earth descend on Innsbruck-Stubai in Austria this week for the World Mountain and Path Working Championships.
Going down simply eight months after the inaugural occasion in Chiang Mai in Thailand, a 30-plus-strong British crew can be difficult for medals. That’s twice as many athletes because the GB crew for this yr’s World Cross Nation Championships in Australia. An indication of the instances? Or is it merely a mirrored image of the actual fact there are 10 races over a four-day interval from June 7-10?
British hopes can be excessive too because the squad options Jon Albon, Scout Adkin and junior Rebecca Flaherty (all pictured in essential picture above) amongst others. Runners from Uganda and Kenya can be troublesome to beat, although, whereas Italy, Switzerland, France and Spain all have a very good custom on the hills and trails.
In whole 1500 athletes from round 70 nations will participate in an occasion which sees World Athletics becoming a member of forces with the World Mountain Working Affiliation, Worldwide Path Working Affiliation and the Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners.
For our protection of final yr’s occasion in Chiang Mai, click on right here, whereas you’ll find an in-depth characteristic on the background to the 2023 occasion right here.
June 7: Senior males’s and girls’s uphill solely vertical race (7.3km, 1020m elevation)
This uphill occasion begins in Neustift in Stubai and, after a circuit of the village, heads on to slim forest trails.
Main contenders are anticipated to be final yr’s one-two, Allie McLaughlin of the USA and Andrea Mayr of Austria, within the girls’s race, with defending champion Patrick Kipngeno and Ombago Kiriago Philemon of Kenya dealing with prime Europeans like Alejandro Garcia and Daniel Osanz of Spain within the males’s race.
Jacob Adkin (Helen MacVicker)
Jacob Adkin, the 2019 European champion, leads the GB males’s hopes with Andrew Douglas, Chris Richards and Joe Steward.
Scout Adkin of Ambleside is joined by Kate Avery, Phillipa Williams and Sara Willhoit in a powerful GB feminine crew. They are going to be going for gold too as they completed simply two factors behind the winners United States within the crew stakes on this race in Chiang Mai final yr.
June 8: Brief path (44.6km, 3132m)
Jon Albon, the Norwegian-based Brit who gained the 2019 world title, leads GB hopes on this occasion. Albon has gained a number of world and European impediment course racing titles and Skyrunning races and in addition took victory on the OCC on the Extremely-Path du Mont-Blanc in 2021.
He’s joined by Kristian Jones, Alexander Chepelin and Thomas Roach as they attempt to match or surpass the crew bronze they gained final yr in Chiang Mai.
Stian Hovind Angermund, the defending champion from Norway, plus final yr’s runner-up Francesco Puppi of Italy are additionally within the line-up, with Albon taking bronze behind them in Chiang Mai.
Elsey Davis, in the meantime, leads the GB problem within the girls’s race with team-mates Cat Taylor and Sharon Taylor as they attempt to match or enhance on the crew bronze medals they earned in Chiang Mai.
Defending champion Denisa Ionela Dragomir of Romania shouldn’t be as a consequence of run however final yr’s silver and bronze medallists, Barbora Macurova of the Czech Republic and Emilia Brangefält of Sweden, are set to compete.
Elsey Davis (Chiang Mai 2022)
June 9: Lengthy path (approx 85km)
The course has been tweaked in latest days as a consequence of snow on the upper floor however the girls’s favorite stays reigning world champion and CCC winner Blandine L’Hirondel of France.
Jasmin Paris, former winner of the infamous Backbone Race, types the British problem along with Meryl Cooper, Julia Davis and Fiona Pascall.
Defending males’s champion Adam Peterson is the one athlete lacking from the highest 10 on the final championships in Chiang Mai. In his absence the favourites embrace Nicolas Martin of France and Andreas Reiterer of Italy.
Joshua Wade, latest winner of the Extremely-Path Snowdonia 100, plus George Foster, Thomas Joly De Lotbiniere and Harry Jones type the GB problem with Jones inserting eleventh in Chiang Mai final yr.
June 10: Junior women and men up and down (7.5km, 374m)
Rebecca Flaherty gained silver behind GB team-mate Jess Bailey in Chiang Mai (because the duo mixed with Ellen Weir to win crew gold) and Bingley runner Flaherty can be going for gold in Austria after good latest type. She is joined by Amelia Lane, Lauren Russell and Eve Whitaker within the GB squad, whereas the junior males’s crew (bronze medallists in 2022) consists of Ewan Busfield, Tom Perry, Alex Poulston and Will Longden.
Patrick Kipngeno (WMTRC)
June 10: Senior women and men up and down (15km, 758m)
This basic race begins and finishes in Innsbruck and it ought to be a quick and livid course over two laps.
A number of athletes who’ve run the uphill solely occasion earlier within the championships are doubling up. These embrace the American Allie McLaughlin and British hope Scout Adkin. Look out too for defending champion Rebecca Cheptegei of Uganda and, within the males’s race, final yr’s runner-up on this race Patrick Kipngeno of Kenya.
The British males’s crew is Jacob Adkin, Andrew Douglas, Chris Richards and Joe Steward with the ladies’s quartet being Scout Adkin, Alice Goodall, Holly Web page and 2019 bronze medallist Phillipa Williams.
Final yr the GB girls’s crew gained silver simply 4 factors behind Switzerland on this up-and-down mountain race.
Entries and outcomes for the Innsbruck-Stubai occasion are right here.
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