World Mountain Running Championships 2011 - USA 'bring it home'
Max King - WMRC 2011
We have been covering major events on MST for about three and half years now. In that time we have covered World XC champs, World Mountain champs, UTMB’s and so on…
This weekend’s World Mountain Running Championships produced a number of firsts however.
1. The USA won the men’s and the women’s individual titles
2. It was the first time that the event has visited Albania.
3. It was the first time that 36 hours later there still appears to be no official results available
4. It is the first time that the race has had a building site incorporated into the route.
Now you may think that I am being sarcastic in some of these statements. Well, the answer to that is that all of the above are facts. In fact, the final statement comes from one of the GB team managers, and this video clearly proves that!
So, enough of the minutia about a very different championships in Tirana, what about the racing?
King takes it to the max
Having completed one of the toughest multi-stage trail races in the world only three weeks ago, and finished second, few would have put their cash on Max King walking away with the World title. But walk away he did, in every sense, as his time of 52.06 was over 35 seconds up on second placed Ahmet Arslan (and over two and half minutes up on Marco de Gasperi!).
Max King on a charge in Tirana
The course seems to have played a large factor in what happened yesterday, with GB team manager Sarah Rowell stating:
Conditions were the toughest I have ever known due to a combination of excessive heat, lack of enough water, steep stepped climbs and what can only be described as steep zig zagging scree descents and dusty paths. It is also the first time I have known a mountain race being run around and through a building site. I am sure there will be some other photos put up but there were plenty of fallers, plus trips to hospital for suspected broken bones or heat problems.
So! Max King may not have been such a wild card after all. The runner from Bend in Oregon had some good prep at the Trans Rockies, would have had to deal with heat, dust, rocky descents AND he is also pretty swift, running internationally as a cross country runner.
An obviously elated King told US site Running USA:
“I’m tired, but I feel very good. This is my first individual medal (last year’s Senior men’s team took the silver), and I’m proud to have it in an up / down year especially in Albania.”
He told US Mountain Running Team website:
“It was a good course for me having both the hard technical uphill and the fast and somewhat technical downhill. I had no idea I was in the lead until I crossed the finish line.
Stating that he saw an African runner ahead of him very late in the race (who then appears not to have even made the podium!)..
“[He] was 30 seconds ahead of me at the top of the third climb and I passed him with about 800 meters to go.“
Men's podium
Behind King European Arslan took the silver with Italy’s Martin Dematteis taking bronze. You had to go the 8th for the first African runner in James Kibet, over 3 minutes back on King.
True Brit
As far as GB runners are concerned it seems to have been a hard day at the office for a few, but showing great tenacity in the trying conditions Blackburn’s Tom Cornthwaite led home the Brits in an excellent 21st place. Trials winner James McMullan was 22nd with Orlando Edwards in 25th. Rob Samuel came in 60th with Matt Clowes in 63rd, so tough were the conditions that Chris Smith was a non-finisher, collapsing in the heat whilst running somewhere in the top 30.
Men’s Top 10 (ahead of official results to follow):
1-Max King (Usa) 52’06”
2-Ahmet Arslan (Tur) 52’41”
3-Martin Dematteis (Ita) 52’57”
4-Bernard Dematteis (Ita) 54’16”
5-Marco De Gasperi (Ita) 54’33”
6-Didier Zago (Fra) 54’50”
7-Ionut Zinca (Rou) 54’52”
8-James Kibet (Uga) 55’09”
9-Adam Kovacs (Hun) 55’22”
10-Julien Rancon (Fra) 55’30”
Kasie Enman
Enman shows the competition dust
In the women’s race American Kasie Enman seems to have crushed the opposition. Her time of 40.49 for the 9km course a full 1 min and 8 secs up on Russia’s Elena Rukhlyada.
Running Times report:
Enman sat in second early on, but had moved into the lead by 6K and opened a large gap just 1k later. She held that lead to the finish, winning in 40:39. It was Enman’s first appearance at the world-level. Buoyed by her performance, the U.S. women also finished fourth as a team on the 90-plus-degree day.
Kasie Enman
Lizzie leads GB girls to bronze!
As predicted on MST on Friday, the GB women’s team were in with a shout of a medal, having taken silver a couple of years ago. We also mentioned that Lizzie Adams and young Emma Clayton are flying. Well, they did us proud in the Albanian boiler as Adams stormed to fifth (just 20 seconds off a bronze individual medal!), with Clayton finishing 10th.
We aren’t quite sure of the whereabouts of Mary Wilkinson and Kate Goodhead, but we’re surmising that they finished pretty well up to ensure that team bronze. Well done girls!
Kasie Enman on top of the world
Women’s Top 10
1-Kasie Enman (Usa) 40’39”
2-Elena Rukhlyada (Rus) 41’47”
3-Marie Laure Duemrgues (Fra) 42’23”
4-Pavia Schorna (Cze) 42’39”
5-Lizzie Adams (Gbr) 42’43”
6-Mateja Kosovelj (Slo) 42’55”
7-Ornella Ferrara (Ita) 43’11”
8-Antonella Confortola (Ita) 43’14”
9-Alice Gaggi (Ita) 43’19”
10-Emma Clayton (Gbr) 43’22”
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All of this makes for a great story and some amazing reading when you look at the various reports and recalls from athletes who were there and officials attending the championships. We’re sure that there will be some interesting fall-out from this showcase weekend for the WMRA and IAAF, and we’ll hopefully bring it to you along with full results as they filter through.
