Successful Skyrunning Premiere around the Matterhorn
SCOTT-Athlete Stephan Wenk, who had already won the “Eiger Ultra” on 16K in July, stepped once again onto the highest spot of the podium at this past weekend’s Ultraks. Winning the 30K distance run with a time of 2:45,19, the Greifenseer (SUI) finished 1:40 min ahead of second place finisher Christian Minoggio (ITA). Finishing third and completing out the podium was Martin Cox, from the UK but living in Anzère (SUI).
“The race was for me a good rehearsal for the Jungfrau-Marathon. This is why I didn’t want to spend too much time on tactics and preferred setting a fast pace from the beginning on. This victory, from the start to the finish line was a great way to end my intensive training period which I’ve been focused on for the past few weeks. On Sunday my legs were feeling astonishingly good, so I even ran the Hohen Kasten mountain race with my girlfriend as a recovery run,” stated Stephan, obviously in a good mood after his strong performance at the Matterhorn.
Pablo Villa enjoying the alpine scenery (Photo: Jean-Louis Bal)
In the main distance event (46K), which is part of the Skyrunner® World Series, the Spanish phenomenon Kilian Jornet grabbed first place with an incredible time of 4:43,05. The runner from Team Salomon was almost two minutes faster than his compatriot Luis Alberto Hernando from Team Adidas. Italian man Nicola Golinelli arrived third. For the women, the favorite Emelie Forsberg (SWE Team Salomon) took the win. Running his first international race, SCOTT Spain newcomer Pablo Villa, 25 years old, put in a great performance and managed a very nice 14th spot. He will be at the start of the GORE-TEX Transalpine-Run next week along with teammate Manuel Merillas. We can certainly expect a good show from these guys.
Nagano Olympic Champion Gian Simmen was also at the start, fully equipped from SCOTT. Check out his video here (in German).
Gian Simmen approaching the finish line (Photo: Christophe Angot)
All in all, over 1‘000 runners from 30 different countries took part in the three distances races (16K, 30K, 46K). After this successful premiere, we are already looking forward to the second edition of the Ultraks in 2014!
More info, pictures and all results here: http://www.ultraks.com
Titel picture: Jean-Louis Bal