Luis Alberto Hernando en route to the world trail running title in Badia Prataglia (© Liesbeth Jansen)
Luis Alberto Hernando of Spain and Adeline Roche of France raced to victory at the 2017 Trail World Championships in Badia Prataglia, Italy, on Saturday (10).
With their wins over the 50km course through the Sasso Fratino Forest, both Hernando and Roche also led their respective teams to the top of the podium in the team competition.
In the men's race, Hernando took the home the gold medal in 4:23:31. He was followed by his teammate Cristofer Clemente who clocked 4:24:31. Cedric Fleureton of France finished in the bronze medal spot running 4:28:03.
Hernando was always in the mix and he knew these trails pretty well. But he did not go off to an early start race and left it to the Andy Wacker of the US and Fleureton to set the early pace. Finland’s Henri Ansio made his move about one-third into the race and started featuring in second place during the middle sections. He managed to hold on to ultimately finish fourth.
Clemente ran a calculated event making his move in the last sections of the course to move past Fleureton to take silver. Daniel Garcia came home in fifth to guarantee Spain the team gold medal.
In the women's race, Roche clocked 5:00:44 to secure the win. Amandine Ferrato, also of France, finished second followed by Italy’s Silvia Rampazzo running 5:00:47 and 5:11:07 respectively.
Roche, Dutchwoman Ragna Debats and Ladia Albertson of the US were the early leaders. As the trails got steeper both on the ascents and descents, Roche increased her lead with Ferrato and Rampazzo moving into podium positions. Debats moved down one spot from her bronze medal finish last year while Nathalie Mauclair of France finished fifth to secure team gold for France.
In the men's team competition, Spain finished first in 13:17:32. They were followed by France in 13:43:06 to take silver with the US third in 14:16:53 to take bronze. In the women's team competition, France clocked 15:17:43 to take the title, followed by Italy in 16:05:08 and Spain in 16:26:05 to finish in silver and bronze position, respectively.
Nadeem Khan (organisers) for the IAAF
