Brits excel at Jungfrau
The Jungfrau Marathon is no ordinary race. It’s neither a road race or a pure mountain race. It involves around 25km of road, and then a mountain ascent to complete the 42km. However, Jungfrau’s ambience and history make it a great location for the World Long Distance Mountain Champs...
We’re not sure all of the British and Irish runners out there would agree, and performances would indicate it that it suited some athletes more than others, but at over 3 hours the race was always going to test climbing skills and endurance running ability.
Women
The weekend’s racing is split into two days, with the ladies running and the Saturday and the men on the Sunday, with both undertaking the same route, and it was Saturday’s women’s race which provided the US with plenty to cheer about, as Stevie Kremer took the World title in 3:22:42, the fastest time for almost 10 years.
The women's start
Though not part of the USA team, Kremer saw some impressive Team US performances which led to team gold, led by Kim Dobson in third place.
As far as the British ladies were concerned Scotland’s Angela Mudge (someone who is notorious for her disliking of tarmac!) ran a very impressive race for 7th, and first V40, a performance you might expect from someone who has tasted gold at many world championship events. Supported by Claire Gordon (28th), Sarah O’Neil (60th) and Kim Threadgall (77th) the Scottish girls did enough for 6th in the team count.
England were led home by Anna Lupton, who followed not too long after Mudge in an excellent 12th. The Ratcliffe athlete is a consistent top-performer at this level, and was part of the winning English trio for 2011, though with Jo Buckley running strongly for 21st and supported by Emma d’Alton in 63rd, there was to be no medal for the English girls this time around, as they took 7th.
Wales finished 10th team, with a great showing in 43rd by Sarah Ridgway. Team mates Andrea Rowlands (56th) and Anna Bartlett (111th) followed Ridgway home.
Individual Results
7 3:39:16 Angela Mudge (Scotland)
12 3:47:12 Anna Lupton (England)
21 3:52:33 Jo Buckley (England)
28 3:58:56 Claire Gordon (Scotland)
43 4:07:56 Sarah Ridgway (Wales)
56 4:17:17 Andrea Rowlands (Wales)
60 4:17:44 Sarah O’Neill (Scotland)
63 4:19:11 Emma D’Alton (England)
77 4:21:41 Kim Threadgall (Scotland)
111 4:32:10 Anna Bartlett (Wales)
Women’ s team rankings are here, with individual positions here
Men
Sunday saw the day dawn and for some of the cream of World long distance mountain running to toe the start line for the men’s race.
Up front Huw Lobb (who had previously finished 2nd and 3rd at this race) was looking strong, and went through 21.1 km with the first 6 or 7 athletes. However, we hope the Englishman won’t mind us saying that he seems to have ‘blown up’ a little in the second half of the race, to finish in 41st.
Huw Lobb
As the race panned out the 2011 Jungfrau winner Markus Hohenwarter (Austria) took it on as they hit the mountain and and never really looked back to win in 2:59:42, good job though as he might have seen 2011 WLDMRC champ Mitja Kosovelj absolutely storming through to take silver. Kenya’s Hosea Tuei took the bronze with Switzerland winning the team title.
Markus Hohenwarter leads Hosea Tuei
A short race film can be seen here.
Though he was a sole representative for his nation, Ireland’s Brian MacMahon ran one of the races of his life to finish 6th. We were all too aware of the Irishman’s speed and climbing prowess after he led for much of the first half of this year’s Snowdon Race and was first to the summit – so perhaps it shouldn’t have been so much of a surprise that he should perform so well on the Jungfrau course.
Brian MacMahon
As in 2011 it was the Scots who led home the Home Nations when it came to team honours. They claimed an amazing team gold last year, however with the Jungfrau route a different proposition to the gnarly and more mountainous 2011 championships, it was always going to be a big ask for Robbie Simpson, Murray Strain, Joe Symonds and Kenny Richmond to repeat the feat. So the Scottish boys should be proud of their 4th place.
Robbie Simpson
It was the youngest member of any of the teams out there, Robbie Simpson, who showed them all the way with a simply superb 9th place finish. The Deeside runner is still only 20 years old, and this followed just one week after running for GB at the World Mountain Champs where he very nearly beat Steve Vernon, and finished in the top 20! Just what can this young man achieve in the next few years?
Robbie was very well supported by Strain in 21st, Symonds in 29th and Richmond in 39th.
Though not running in the English vests, first Englishmen home were Orlando Edwards, in a superb 16th place just three minutes back on Simpson, and Morpeth’s Ian Harding in 24th.
Matthew Roberts
There was to be celebration for the Welsh team too, as (according to a Facebook post!) they overcame the English team at a world level race for the first time in over 20 years. Andy Davies’ performance can be put into perspective by the fact that he was the third fastest runner of the entire field to ascend the mountain climb, with Joe Symonds telling us that not only was he running significantly faster than the Scot when he passed him, but also the Jungfrau train!
Davies’ 13th position, backed up by great runs from Rob Samuel (20th), Math Roberts (40th) and Richard Roberts (56th) meant that the Welsh team were good enough for 5th team on the day. Again running in the open race, Wales’ Iain Ridgway also ran a solid race, finishing just ahead of Roberts in 53rd.
Rob Samuel
England’s Adrian Marriot was an excellent 2nd V40 on the day, finishing in 32nd and along with Lobb (41st) and Cumbria’s Chris Steele (50th) the English team finished 8th overall.
Adrian Marriott
Chris Steele
The Northern Ireland team were led home by Justin Maxwell in 67th, and supported by Don Travers (107th) and Mark Kendall (155th), showing grit and determination on this Swiss giant of a race to finish 11th in the team standings.
Individual Results
9 3:10:24 Robbie Simpson (Scotland)
13 3:11:49 Andrew Davies (Wales)
16 3:13:49 Orlando Edwards (Shaftsbury Barnet / Eng)
20 3:16:08 Rob Samuel (Wales)
21 3:16:10 Murray Strain (Scotland)
24 3:16:18 Ian Harding (Morpeth / Eng)
29 3:18:18 Joe Symonds (Scotland)
32 3:19:00 Adrian Marriott (England)
39 3:25:12 Kenny Richmond (Scotland)
40 3:25:16 Matthew Roberts (Wales)
41 3:25:33 Huw Lobb (England)
50 3:30:48 Chris Steele (England)
53 3:31:54 Iain Ridgway (Eryri / Wal)
56 3:32:55 Richard Roberts (Wales)
67 3:39:33 Justin Maxwell (N Ireland)
107 3:48:51 Don Travers (N Ireland)
155 3:56:19 Mark Kendall (N Ireland)
Men’s team rankings are here, with individual positions here and here.
We are still looking out for some quality images from the women’s race, so any pointers from our readers will be much appreciated!
