MST Mountain Legends - Jonathan Wyatt
How many runners can you name that can run 3.43 for 1500m, 13.27 for 5000m, a 2.13 marathon and who then go on to dominate the global mountain running scene for 6 years straight? Sure, there are athletes who have run quicker, but when it comes to crossing terrain-boundaries Jonathan Wyatt is something of a phenomenon.
Subject of an upcoming exclusive interview on MST, Wyatt has won a few bits and bobs…
- Competed in 9 iaaf world championships, including 3 world cross country events
- Competed in 2 olympic and 2 commonwealth games events
- Holder of 12 new zealand titles and 2 australian national titles
- World mountain running champion 5 times
- Only person to ever win a mountain running uphill title and up and down title
- 6 time winner of the world mountain running grand prix series
Looking at what is known in cycling parlance as his palmares, his success over the last 10 years is draw-droppingly good. But it’s when you really analyse these mountain running accomplishments that you unearth this guys talent.
Flying off the 'horn, 2002
From the super-hard Jungfrau Marathon, to uphill only IAAF Grand Prix races, Jonathan’s range is unrivaled. For those of you that have dabbled in a bit of everything you’ll know that just developing your cadence and cardio vascular system for these disciplines is hard enough. The mental strength that is need for racing at this level is also immense, as hours can be spent with nothing more than your thoughts and sheer Alpine drops of 1000m, putting it this way JW must be some kind of super-runner…
Raw power
Legend is a word too readily used these days, so in our humble opinion, “Sir Jonathan, stand up” (and such a nice bloke too!).
