Kilian Jornet’s eleventh Title, Sylvia Nordskar’s First Win – iRunFar

Inside the 2024 Zegama-Aizkorri Marathon, every a race rookie and a race veteran ended up on the podium’s prime step. Inside the women’s race, Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) dominated from the halfway degree to take her first win inside the event, and Kilian Jornet (Spain, lives in Norway) led from the start inside the males’s race to take his eleventh win out of 12 begins.

Starting at 9 a.m. native time on Sunday, May 26, the 42-kilometer race traversed rugged terrain all through Basque Nation, Spain, with higher than 2,700 meters of climbing on technical terrain. It’s the third event inside the Golden Path World Assortment, following up on races in China and Japan once more in April. The route climbs the 4 of the perfect peaks in Basque Nation and is notorious for its antagonistic local weather circumstances. Fortuitously, this yr’s start was glorious, with minimal wind and fewer mud on course than in some years.

Inside the women’s race, the best 5 finishers from 2023 have been all once more as soon as extra, with ultimate yr’s winner Daniela Oemus (Germany) making an attempt to repeat. Turning into a member of those 5 have been rising star and first-timer Lide Urrestarazu (Spain) and 2022 third-place finisher Sara Alonso (Spain). Basque Nation native Malen Osa was moreover making an attempt to mix it up on the doorway of the sphere.

With Jornet lining up for his twelfth Zegama after 10 prior wins, along with a course file of three:36:40 set in 2022, it might have been arduous to guess in direction of him. Nonetheless, there have been numerous others making an attempt to take the title, along with ultimate yr’s winner Manuel Merrilas (Spain) and Jornet’s NNormal teammate Elhousine Elazzaoui (Morocco), who positioned second ultimate yr.

Nonetheless inside the phrases of Jornet, “Zegama is Zegama,” and one thing can happen on race day, so be taught on for the entire race report.

2024 Zegama Marathon Ladies’s Race

The women’s race was set to be an thrilling one with so many prime women returning for yet another go on the course. The USA’s Dani Moreno took the lead from the highway. At about eight kilometers into the race, she was joined by Switzerland’s Theres Leboeuf, who bought right here third on the primary stop of the Golden Path World Assortment, the Kobe Path in Japan, and Sylvia Nordskar from Norway.

It was terribly tight inside the first part of the women’s race, with the best 5, which included Bailey Kowalczyk from america and Lide Urrestarazu of Spain, staying inside a minute of each other.

Spherical 13 kilometers, Nordskar overtook Leboeuf for the lead and continued to hold this place as a lot because the notorious Sancti Spiritu climb. Behind them, Urrestarazu crept further up the leaderboard with each passing kilometer, working her technique into second at Sancti Spiritu, two minutes behind Nordskar and a minute ahead of Marta Martínez of Spain.

Nordskar went from power to power on the doorway, rising her lead over the rest of the sphere whereas the fight for second place continued inside the race’s second half. After a fairly conservative start, Basque Nation native Malen Osa started shifting up inside the latter kilometers of the course. The teenager accomplished fourth inside the 2023 Golden Path World Assortment and wished to make her mark in her residence race.

By 26 kilometers in, she’d labored her technique into second, merely over 4 minutes behind the chief. Martínez trailed her in third, whereas Urrestarazu started to fade inside the second half. After ending 18th on the Zegama Marathon in 2022 and fourth in 2023, Nordskar crossed the top line victorious in 4:29:12. Shut behind her, Osa held onto second in 4:35:19, adopted merely 30 seconds later by Martínez in 4:35:39.

Leboeuf fought her technique once more to fourth in 4:36:16, overtaking Urrestarazu, who accomplished in 4:37:20.

2024 Zegama Marathon Ladies’s Outcomes

1. Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) – 4:29:12
2. Malen Osa (Spain) – 4:35:19
3. Marta Martínez (Spain) – 4:35:39
4. Theres Leboeuf (Switzerland) – 4:36:16
5. Lide Urrestarazu (Spain) – 4:37:20
6. Elisa Desco (Italy) – 4:40:28
7. Daniela Oemus (Germany) – 4:41:21
8. Rosa Lara (Spain) – 4:42:54
9. Ida Robsahm (Norway) – 4:44:31
10. Caitlin Fielder (New Zealand) – 4:46:02

Full outcomes.

[From 2010 to 2012, Elisa Desco served a two-year doping ban from the IAAF after she tested positive for EPO at the 2009 World Mountain Running Championships.]

2024 Zegama Marathon Males’s Race

From the first climb of the race, Spain’s Kilian Jornet (Spain, lives in Norway) l took the lead, making an attempt capable of take his eleventh Zegama Marathon title. Merely eight kilometers in, he’d already created nearly a minute gap over Kevin Kibet and Robert Pkemoi Matayango, every from Kenya. Jornet’s teammate, Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco, wasn’t far behind the best three.

As a result of the race continued upward, Jornet pushed to increase the outlet between himself and the rest of the sphere.

By the incline on the notorious Sancti Spiritu, the place the crowds didn’t disappoint, Jornet had a three-minute lead on Kibet, and it appeared as if he have been on tempo to beat his private course file of three:36:40, which he set in 2022. Pkemoi Matayango stayed shut in third, with Elazzaoui trailing in fourth 20 kilometers into the race.

Nonetheless, Kibet appeared to wrestle with the robust terrain after Sancti Spiritu. Whereas he accomplished third at Sierre-Zinal in 2023, his path racing experience is relatively restricted. His fellow Kenyan Pkemoi Matayango moreover misplaced areas inside the latter half of the course.

Poland’s Bartłomiej Przedwojewski and Elazzaoui used this technical, rocky path to fight their technique into the second and third place, the place they may leapfrog with each other for the remainder of the race. Behind the best three, benefiting from the fading Kenyans, Italy’s Luca Del Pero moreover labored his technique forward inside the standings.

Last yr’s winner, Manuel Merillas of Spain, started additional conservatively nevertheless slowly edged his technique in direction of the doorway end of the group, using the steep technical terrain to his profit.

Jornet pushed inside the final 10 kilometers in an effort to set one different new course file, nevertheless stomach points slowed him down in direction of the tip. Nonetheless, he took a implausible win, crossing the highway in 3:38:07. Elazzaoui accomplished second in 3:46:16 and Przedwojewski in third with a time of three:46:54.

Del Pero improved on his thirteenth place finish on the Zegama Marathon ultimate yr with fourth and a time of three:47:25, merely edging out Merillas, who bought right here residence in fifth in 3:47:42.

2024 Zegama Marathon Males’s Outcomes

1. 1. Kilian Jornet (Spain, lives in Norway) – 3:38:07
   2. Elhousine Elazzaoui (Morocco) – 3:46:16
   3. Bartłomiej Przedwojewski (Poland) – 3:46:54
   4. Luca Del Pero (Italy) – 3:47:25
   5. Manuel Merillas (Spain) – 3:47:42
   6. Robert Pkemoi Matayango (Kenya) – 3:50:02
   7. Marcin Kubica (Poland) – 3:53:24
   8. Alain Santamaría (Spain) – 3:54:11
   9. Loïc Robert (France) – 3:55:52
   10. Léonard Mitrica (Romania) – 3:56:28

Full outcomes.