Kilian is on it for Giir di Mont - today
Kilian winning in 2010
After his victory in the Western States 100 in June, Catalan athlete Kilian Jornet returns to the competition this Sunday, running the Giir Di Mont, the super-tough 32km mountain event in Premana (Italy)…
The Giir di Mont is a big race for Kilian:
“Giir di Mont is a special race. It’s not extremely technical, since one can run the whole length of the race, but it does have tough slopes, 3 really hard ones upwards and 3 downwards.
The big challenges in this race are both the high level of the participants, which is always the case, and the fact that the three upward slopes come one after the other and require extra strength. In this sense, the specific training I’ve been doing has been on mountains, running up short upward slopes of 1000 meters and immediately running down other slopes”.
With regard to the atmosphere of the event, Killan states:
“It’s a really special race. This race and Zegama are definitely the races with most atmosphere in the world. This race takes place in the Alpages, little mountain villages, where the atmosphere pushes you forward to help you to run faster.”
Kilian on-route at the WS100
After his victory in the WS 100, Kilian has enjoyed a few race-free weeks so as to prepare an important part of the season.
“After a start of the season full of races, I needed some time to undertake a sound training period and, in the last two weeks, I have been able to do some quality and quantity work, which has meant over 34 hours and 18,000 meters of slopes per week, combining long sessions, some of which were very intense.
“I think I am very well prepared for future races and have a good feeling after the vertical kilometers I have run in my training”.
This is a key part of the year for Kilian where, apart from Giir di Mont, he will take part in Sierre Zinal on August 14th and UTMB on August 26th.
Kilian will be joined on the Giir di Mont start line by Tom Owens (GB) who is in great shape after his victory at the 4 Trails in Germany.
It will be an opportunity for Tom to re-kindle his competition with Kilian after his amazing race at Zegama (Spain), finishing at only 30” adrift of the Catalan.
Mireia Miro (Spain), after her Canazeï victory last Sunday, it will be a strong favourite to realise the Italian ‘double’. Zhanna Vokueva (Russia) has progressed since the beginning of year and this is her first Giir di Mont event, which will contain some of the best mountain running athletes in the world.
Mireia Mirò
Anna Frost (NZ)continues to build her fitness after her foot injury at the start of the year, and will use the race as a stepping stone to rebuild her race fitness.
The race starts today at 8.00am (CET)
Reactions so far
Tony Mollica Aug 1, 03:37 AM
I am looking forward to seeing how Killian does Sunday. He absolutely rocked WS!