Brutal!
Kilian in the zone at Zegama
Just one of the words used by a competitor to describe the conditions at Sunday’s Zegama race. The impending weather system predicted dropped big time on the race, resulting in snow on the tops and – perhaps worse – deep mud on the descents…
Kilian Jornet
It was yet another big day for the Zegama-master Kilian Jornet, mastering the tough conditions and challenges from Luis Hernando and 2011 runner-up Tom Owens to register his fifth win on the event. The young Catalan is on his way to almost legendary mountain status, yet is still only 24 years old!
Tom Owens had a big for third place, and reported back:
“I am very, very pleased. My hamstrings have been tight for a week or two now, but with some great work by our physio Arnauld I was ok for the race. The conditions suited me actually and it was nice and slippy, a bit of a surprise for some of the guys around the world! A great race and great result.”
Tom Owens on the Zegama climbs
The women’s race was won once again by Oihana Kortazar, but not before being led all the way to the top of the final climb by Lauren Jeska, who fell apart a little on the last descent and into the finish – the Todmorden Harrier told MST:
“I was OK on the top rocky bit but then the 10km mud started (ankle deep), with loads of uphill slopes. I hit the wall big time and could barely stand to the finish line, I lost 12 mins on it. First aid tent for 45 mins when I got there!”
Oihana Kortazar
Being back in the UK the coverage via twitter and facebook was dramatic, and these two reports by Ian Corless and Marcus Warner for Ultra 168 tell us all we need to know, straight from the course, we’ll leave it to those boys to expand further.
Men’s results here, with women’s results here and some awesome images via the Salomon Running facebook page here.
The Zegama podium 2012
Reactions so far
Tony Mollica May 21, 02:39 AM
Killian is amazing! They should test him to see if he’s human.
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