Joyce Muthoni Njeru in Broken Arrow Skyrace action (© Marco Gulberti for WMRA)
Joyce Muthoni Njeru and Elhousine Elazzaoui set Broken Arrow Skyrace records to win on Sunday (22), while Anna Gibson and Christian Allen clinched Ascent Race crowns on Friday (20) when World Mountain Running Association World Cup action resumed in Palisades Tahoe, California.
In the Ascent Race, much attention was on Kilian Jornet as he took on an event that goes from the valley floor to the summit of Washeshu Peak at 2708m, climbing its way up 914m over 4.8km. But the weather system and the men’s field had another plan in mind.
Despite a beautiful blue sky day in Palisades Tahoe, there were gale force winds at the summit of Washeshu Peak, so the decision was taken to reroute the race to finish at KT22 at 2458m. This made it around 3km with approximately 660m of ascent.
Both the men’s and women’s fields were stacked with US and international athletes. Last year’s women’s winner Muthoni Njeru was on the start line, alongside last year’s runner-up Gibson and third-place finisher Allie McLaughlin, who formed part of an incredibly deep US field due to the race acting as the US trial for the World Championships.
Similarly, the men’s field had an incredible array of US talent, such as former world champion Joseph Gray and Allen, who achieved some breakthrough performances in last year’s World Cup. In addition there were strong international athletes including Philemon Kiriago, Lukas Ehrle and Jornet.
The men’s and women’s races started together a small group of men broke off the front as they headed up the grass section. Jornet and Gray were in that group, alongside Allen, Tyler McCandless and David Sinclair once they emerged on to the road section.
But Jornet backed right off the pace and didn’t feature in the latter stages of the race, later citing stomach issues from travelling as the reason he couldn’t push as he wanted. It was Allen who opened a gap and successfully held off Gray’s challenges to take the win in 23:49, with Gray runner-up in 24:12. Cam Smith held on to take a close third in 24:24. The top six were all from the US, with Kenya’s Kiriago the top international runner in seventh.
For the women there was a clear leader early on and that was Gibson. But she was chased hard by Muthoni Njeru, Jade Belzberg and Sydney Petersen.
Gibson could not be caught, no matter how hard Muthoni Njeru and Belzberg tried. She eventually stretched out a strong lead and took the win in 27:32, almost catching Jornet on the line.
Muthoni Njeru ran a very strong race, as is so often the case in the World Cup, and took second place in 29:06. Belzberg was a close third in 29:23. In fifth place, astonishingly, was 12-year-old running prodigy Pema Franchi Antelme of Ecuador.
Given the weather conditions of the previous days, it was with some relief that things stabilised enough for the 23km Skyrace to go ahead as planned on Sunday.
The weather was perfect for the race, with blue skies and cool temperatures.
The women set off 20 minutes ahead of the men and, as expected, it was a fast start. It took a couple of kilometres for the lead group to emerge and it was defending champion Muthoni Njeru joined by Madalina Florea, Lauren Gregory, Gibson, Belzberg, Lara Hamilton and Alice Gaggi. In these early stages, McLaughlin and Petersen also remained in contact, a little way behind.
When they hit Snow King at about 8km, Muthoni Njeru and Florea had opened a 30-second gap on Gibson and Gregory, with Marie Nivet and Gaggi just behind them.
This pattern continued on the long climb, and it increasingly looked as though either Muthoni Njeru or Florea would be on the top step of the podium. They really attacked the downhill and the course record was under threat. Muthoni Njeru opened a gap of a few seconds on Florea, but then Gibson started to close.
Muthoni Njeru continued to stretch the gap little by little and while Florea was only around 30 seconds behind, it began to look unlikely that Muthoni Njeru could be caught. She blazed into Palisades Tahoe to retain her title, destroying the course record in the process with 2:01:16 and also leading the next two under the old record mark. Florea took second in 2:02:03 and Gibson was third in 2:03:46. Gregory was fourth and Gaggi fifth.
The men also started incredibly quickly and it was no surprise to see Friday’s Ascent winner Allen leading the runners out in a characteristically aggressive fashion. Kiriago led the chase and Ehrle surprised a few people by forming part of this chase group along with Elazzaoui, Smith, defending champion Patrick Kipngeno, Taylor Stack and Andy Wacker. Also in contention was young US talent Mason Coppi.
It wasn’t long before the furious early pace led to a breakaway group led by Allen and Kiriago, with Elazzaoui, Ehrle and Kipngeno just behind. This was the order when they reached Snow King, with Coppi and Stack 50 seconds behind this leading group. But by the time they reached KT22, Kipngeno had stamped his authority on the climbing and led alongside Kiriago and Elazzaoui. Allen was 16 seconds back, with Ehrle just behind him.
The leading three remained together at Siberia, with a gap of 30 seconds to Allen and Ehrle. But, with the long downhill coming, it was Elazzaoui’s wheelhouse. He bided his time and the lead changed hands between Kiriago and Kipngeno, with Elazzaoui sitting ominously on their shoulders. At this point Allen’s speed really kicked in and he began to catch up.
Elazzaoui finally made his move and he won in a course record of 1:43:53, just ahead of Kiriago who chased him in an exciting sprint finish and took second in 1:43:57. Kipngeno rounded out the men’s podium, with all three beating the previous course record, in 1:44:11. Allen was fourth in 1:44:46 and Ehrle fifth in 1:45:19.
Kirsty Reade (WMRA) for World Athletics
