Kinlochleven hosts skyrunning championships
A prestigious weekend of Skyrunning took place in Lochaber last week as the world’s best mountain runners pitted themselves against the unforgiving West Highland landscape.
With four days of mountain races on the schedule, more than 2,000 athletes gathered in the village of Kinlochleven from last Thursday for the extreme running festival from September 13-16. Course organisers were forced to use alternative race routes due to the harsh weather conditions which saw winds reach up to 100kph on high ground.
The first race, part of the prestigious Skyrunning World Championships 2018, played out in heavy rain and strong winds as 350 athletes took part in the Salomon Mamores Vertical Kilometer (VK) race, which challenges runners to climb a total elevation of 1,000 metres over just 5km.
Swiss athlete Rémi Bonnet triumphed in a fastest course time of 39 minutes 23 seconds to win the race, while Spanish runner Laura Orgué beat her own record set last year to claim victory.
On Friday, the 2018 Skyrunning World Championships ULTRA race, held in the Highlands for the first time, was won by Brit Jonathon Albon and Dutch runner Ragna Dabats.
Challenging weather forced race officials to swap to the bad weather course for the Salomon Ben Nevis Ultra race. Still a strenuous race, the ULTRA World Championships course extended to 47.5km with a total ascent of 1,640m.
Albon, who was last year’s Extreme Skyrunner World Series Champion, led for most of the ultra and finished in 3:48:02, 12 minutes ahead of the other runners.
On Saturday Kilian Jornet and Tove Alexandersson took gold for Spain and Sweden in the final race of the 2018 Skyrunning World Championships as both athletes smashed the course records for the 29km Salomon Ring of Steall Skyrace.
More than 700 runners entered the technical Skyrace, which includes four Munro summits (Scottish mountains over 3,000ft/914m) and 2,500m of ascent.
Jornet, 30, a world-acclaimed skyrunner, came home in 03:04:34, an incredible 20 minutes faster than the record set last year.
In only her second Skyrace, 26-year-old Alexandersson finished almost 19 minutes ahead of the record in 03:46:28.
The weekend’s final event, the Salomon Glen Coe Skyline, bore the brunt of the bad weather as rain and wind wreaked havoc.
In rain and strong winds, 200 athletes from across the world took on the alternative 32km bad weather course through challenging mountainous terrain.
Race officials deemed wind speeds of 100kph on high ground to be too dangerous for the full 52km route, especially as it would include the UK’s infamous Aonach Eagach Ridge.
The route, amounting to a total ascent of 2,700m, still included the exposed Grade 3 scramble of Curved Ridge on Buachaille Etive Mor.
Spain’s Kilian Jornet and American Hillary Gerardi battled the worst of the weather to triumph in the race.
Jornet, who became the 2018 SKY World Champion at the Ring of Steall Skyrace the day before, crossed the finish line in Kinlochleven in a time of 03:37:17.
After more than 30km of running, first and second place in the female race was determined by a 200m sprint for the finish line, with Gerardi winning by just seven seconds in a time of 04:17:48.
Lochaber Athletic Club athlete Finlay Wild had to pull-out of the Glen Coe Skyline race due to illness.