Joyce Njeru wins the Krkonossky Half Marathon (© Abel de Frutos)
The sixth stage of the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) World Cup was won by Kenya's Joyce Njeru and Geoffrey Ndungu as they triumphed at the Krkonossky Half Marathon in Janske Lazne, Czech Republic, on Sunday (15).
As well as the World Cup, which attracted some top international runners, the race also served as the Czech Republic Long Distance National Championships, so it also attracted the best Czech runners, several of whom had performed well in the 2019 World Mountain Running Championships.
At 21km, with a total elevation of 1050m, the race was classed as a classic mountain race for the World Cup. The race starts in the centre of town (Colonnade Square), then proceeds to climb the mountain path across the top of Cerna Hora Mountain to the small ski resort town of Pec Pod Snezkou and then comes back down in a loop, finishing back at the square.
The conditions were already hot as the runners set off at 9am, and they were only going to get hotter. Right from the start three men formed a group and it was Timothy Kurui, Ndungu and Marek Chrascina. They ran together for the first 6km, emerging at the first checkpoint neck and neck. In the women’s race Njeru struck out alone, opening up a gap to Barbora Macurova and Pavla Matyasova. Njeru had put 1 minute and 50 seconds of daylight between her and Macurova, who in turn had a 10-second gap to Matyasova at the 6km point.
By the Cerna Hora summit at 15km the top three men were still together, with Timotej Becan, Evans Kiptum and Jiri Cipa chasing hard, but Ndungu had clearly decided that enough was enough and started to drop the hammer. At the same point in the women’s race Njeru still had a gap on Macurova, with Matyasova a little further behind. As they started the last descent, it was still quite open in both races.
Coming into the finish, Ndungu had managed to open a gap between the two chasers and eventually won in 1:32:30, with Kirui coming in just under a minute behind in 1:33:22. Chrascina chased him hard and took third spot in 1:33:35.
In the final stages of the women’s race Macurova did manage to claw back some of the gap to Njeru, but Njeru won in 1:50:02, with Macurova just 25 seconds behind her. Matyasova took third in 1:52:45.
The next stop in the World Cup is Vertical Nasego and Trofeo Nasego on 4 and 5 September.
Kirsty Reade (WMRA) for World Athletics
