Welcome to Innsbruck! The town of 130,000 in western Austria, and the mountains of the Stubai Valley to the southwest of town, simply kicked off the second-ever mixed World Mountain and Path Working Championships.
The 2023 festivities opened on Wednesday, June 7, with the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race and Kenya’s Patrick Kipngeno and Austria’s Andrea Mayr earned the occasion’s first particular person golds. Kipngeno completed in 40:18, a repeat win from final yr, and Mayr topped out in 48:14. It was extremely Mayr’s seventh world championship win.
The course gained 1,020 meters over 7.1 kilometers and completed manner up excessive on the Elfer Hut above the Stubai Valley. Alternately, that’s 3,346 ft throughout 4.4 miles.
Andrea Mayr, 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race winner. This was Mayr’s, who hails from the host nation of Austria, seventh mountain working world championships victory. Photograph: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill Males’s Race
Bursts of AC/DC’s “T.N.T. “and Queen’s “We Will Rock You” pumped the runners up at the beginning they usually may’ve jumped the road only a second or two early. A Spanish runner went down straight away at the beginning, clutching his proper shoulder as the sector ran away. The race began with a 900-meter flat-ish street part via city, as a approach to get to the paths and achieve some separation.
Early males’s race leaders through the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Canada’s Alexandre Ricard joined a Kenyan and Ugandan lead pack for the primary a number of minutes, properly distancing from the larger group. That’s as a result of solely three minutes into the race a fence gate bottlenecked runners additional again. After which lower than 10 minutes into the race, slower runners had been already grabbing a couple of powerhike steps on the steeper terrain.
Midway up the mountain Ricard was gone from the lead pack, and defending champion Patrick Kipngeno of Kenya asserted himself on the entrance. Levi Kiprotich from Uganda was in pursuit, and Kenyan and Ugandan runners had been in third and fourth too, establishing for an in depth crew race. Joseph Grey, the 2019 World Mountain Working Champion from the USA, had moved up properly and raced in fifth.
Patrick Kipngeno, 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race winner. He efficiently defended his 2022 title, and seemed informal as he gapped the sector by 1.5 minutes. Photograph: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
The race completed on crowd-lined singletrack above treeline, and Kipngeno was to this point forward that he had time to excessive 5 spectators whereas smiling earlier than ending. Kipngeno’s 40:18 end was 93 seconds higher than everybody else. He was precisely that far forward final yr too. Kipngeno will double again for Saturday’s World Mountain Working Championships Up and Down race.
Levi Kiprotich was second in 41:51, maybe giving up a while to his chasers late. Kenya’s Josphat Kiprotich and Uganda’s Eliud Cherop had been third and fourth in 42:04 and 42:16, respectively.
Joseph Grey stayed in fifth in 42:32.
Every nation’s first three runners scored within the crew competitors, and scored through end place (not by time), and with three runners inside the highest seven, Kenya totaled solely 11 factors to win crew gold. Uganda positioned second with 21 factors, and Switzerland was a shock third.
Levi Kiprotich (proper) main his Ugandan teammates, on his approach to taking second on the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill Males’s Outcomes
- Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya) – 40:18
- Levi Kiprotich (Uganda) – 41:51
- Josphat Kiprotich (Kenya) – 42:04
- Eliud Cherop (Uganda) – 42:16
- Joseph Grey (USA) – 42:32
- Daniel Osanz (Spain) – 42:41
- Philemon Kiriago (Kenya) – 42:54
- Joe Steward (U.Okay.) – 43:02
- Filimon Abraham (Germany) – 43:08
- Roberto Delorenzi (Switzerland) – 43:31
Josphat Kiprotich (proper) and different runners early within the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. He was one other runner who began conservatively, and he completed third. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill Girls’s Race
The ladies took off at 2:00 p.m. native time, an hour after the lads’s begin, in 23-degree Celsius (80-degree Fahrenheit) sunny skies. That very same 900-meter rolling street part meant one other dash begin with Kenyan and Uganda runners on the lead, and Allie McLaughlin, final yr’s World Mountain Working Championships Uphill Champion, leapt into the early lead a couple of minutes in too, and solely after clipping that problematic fence gate.
Fifteen minutes into the race although issues had been totally different and Austria’s Andrea Mayr moved into the lead and shortly opened a minute-plus hole.
Andrea Mayer (proper) working conservatively, inside the top-15 ladies, early within the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. She would go on to win the race. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Kenya’s Philaries Kisang, final yr’s Thyon-Dixence race winner in Switzerland, spied Mayr from a distance, and when the grade eased somewhat, Kisang shortly made up time on Mayr. As the 2 moved above treeline, Kisang improbably regained the lead and put a couple of steps on Mayr. The joy was brief lived as Mayr moved again previous Kisang and mercied her into mountaineering.
Mayr clutched the host nation flag as she completed, and the added drama of that late duel actually outshined the joy of the sooner males’s race.
Mayr completed in 48:14 and Kisang was second in 48:51.
Mayr, a six-time world champion who was second finally yr’s World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race, was unimaginable. Mayr, now age 43, is a former steeplechaser and a two-time Olympic marathoner. This was her first world championships win since 2016, and comes a exceptional 17 years after her first win in 2006. Her different wins got here in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014 — all uphill years, again when the championships alternated uphill and up-and-down years. Mayr, as with males’s winner Kipgneno, gained 4,000 euros. That was a part of a complete 16,500 euros money purse that went 5 deep.
Philaries Kipsang on her approach to ending second on the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. Photograph: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
Grayson Murphy, coolly racing in a sprint-style one-piece swimsuit, chased in third at 49:11. Murphy is the 2019 World Mountain Working Champion.
Fourth- and fifth-place Laura Hottenrott and Valentine Jepkoech Rutto of Germany and Kenya completed in 49:56 and 49:59.
Early tempo pusher McLaughlin would end thirteenth in 52:27.
Kenya simply gained the crew race, inserting three runners inside the highest 10. Their 17 factors was adopted by Germany with 33 for second place, and the U.Okay. was third with 51 factors.
2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill Girls’s Outcomes
- Andrea Mayr (Austria) – 48:14
- Philaries Kipsang (Kenya) – 48:51
- Grayson Murphy (USA) – 49:22
- Laura Hottenrott (Germany) – 49:56
- Valentine Jepkoech Rutto (Kenya) – 49:59
- Christel Dewalle (France) – 50:04
- Domenika Mayer (Germany) – 51:21
- Scout Adkin (U.Okay.) – 51:39
- Karoline Holsen Kyte (Norway) – 51:51
- Joyce Muthoni (Kenya) – 52:09
[Christel Dewalle previously served a four-month doping ban after a positive test for the stimulant Heptaminol at the 2016 Skyrunning World Championships.]
The occasion continues with the Path World Championships 40k on Thursday, June 8, the Path World Championships 80k on Friday, June 9, and the World Mountain Working Championships Up and Down race on Saturday, June 10.
Philaries Kipsang (left) and Grayson Murphy (center) run shut collectively within the early kilometers off the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race. Kipsang would end second, and Murphy third. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
