On the 2023 World Mountain and Path Operating Championships in Innsbruck, Austria, two Canadian path runners positioned within the prime 20 within the males’s and girls’s vertical occasions. Anne-Marie Comeau of St-Ferréol-les-Neiges, Que., and Alexandre Ricard of Squamish, B.C., led the best way for Staff Canada on the 7.1-kilometre course that includes greater than 1,000m of elevation achieve.
Austrian girl wins on dwelling soil
Comeau was the highest Canadian finisher, inserting fifteenth general in 52:29, solely 4 minutes behind Austria’s Andrea Mayr, who took the win in 48:14 on dwelling soil. This win marked Mayr’s seventh particular person world mountain operating title and her first since 2017.
Mayr, 43, put her mountain operating expertise on show, enjoying the affected person sport on the foothills of Neustift. She began the primary kilometre of the race in thirteenth place, and by midway, she had made her strategy to the entrance of the pack, ultimately overtaking Kenya’s Philaries Jeruto Kisang for the lead earlier than the ultimate climb at Elferhutte. Kisang held on to second in 48:51, and Grayson Murphy of Staff USA was third in 49:22. In a post-race interview with World Athletics, bronze-medallist Murphy referred to the ultimate climb at Elferhutte as “soul-sucking and unending.” The ultimate climb as much as the end had a gradient of 40 per cent in areas.
Extra satisfied than ever that mountain runners are, as suspected, totally mad.
Right here’s Kenya’s Philaries Jeruto Kisang within the last 100m of right now’s Vertical Uphill – and that is the world silver medallist. pic.twitter.com/Sp5OVkOdxo
— Cathal Dennehy (@Cathal_Dennehy) June 7, 2023
The Canadian ladies’s staff completed eighth out of twenty-two international locations within the vertical race, with Comeau main the best way. Comeau is a multisport endurance athlete, representing Staff Canada within the skiathlon on the 2018 Winter Olympics and successful a number of U Sports activities XC titles with Laval College in Quebec Metropolis. Jade Belzberg was the second Canadian girl to cross the end line in twenty seventh place. Kerri Labrecque rounded out the Canadian prime three in 54th to build up a staff rating of 96 factors.
Kipngeno wins back-to-back
Within the males’s race, 2022 champion Patrick Kipngeno of Kenya gained his second consecutive world mountain and path operating championship. In contrast to Mayr within the ladies’s vertical race, Kipngeno ran to the entrance from the beginning and danced up the hills, creating a 30-second hole over the chase group at midway. He had prolonged his benefit by almost a minute when he arrived on the last climb to the end, successful the 7.1 km vertical race by a landslide in 40:18.
Coming in a minute and a half behind Kipngeno for silver was Uganda’s Levi Kiprotich in 41:51. Josphat Kiprotich was third in 42:04. In a post-race interview, Kipngeno revealed to the media that he spent nearly all of the yr coaching in Austria, which he mentioned gave him a substantial aggressive benefit.
Canada’s Ricard and Remi Leroux of Quebec led the Canadian males’s staff to a top-15 end out of 31 international locations. Ricard completed two minutes again of the lads’s podium in 44:08 for seventeenth general, and Leroux got here in 39 seconds behind Ricard for twenty fifth. Gareth Hadfield of Calgary rounded out the Canadian prime three in 106th place for a last staff rating of 148 factors.
Listed here are the total outcomes from the 2023 vertical uphill race. Extra motion to come back from the 2023 World Mountain and Path Operating Championships in Innsbruck, Austria, on Thursday with the quick course 45km and Friday’s lengthy course 85km. You can even comply with every thing Staff Canada on their official Instagram web page for the 2023 WMTR Championships.
