All eyes will be on Hønefoss, a small region of Norway just 45-minutes from Oslo come Saturday 17th October.

Norwegian star Jakob Ingebrigtsen (born 19 September 2000) hopefully will toe the line of the Hytteplanmila, a race where he ran 27:54 in 2019. Jakob needs no introduction, particularly to the Scandinavian field (including his brothers tbc) that will assemble next to him come Saturday. In 2020 alone he set a Norwegian 5km record 13:28, He won National Championships at 1500m and 800m. Set a European 2000m record in Oslo and added a Norwegian 3000m record and a European 1500m record.

Jakob if he races, is without doubt the one to watch on Saturday.

However, the mountain, ultra and trail world will be looking at Kilian Jornet who will toe the line for his first foray on to the road running a flat out 10km with the best of the best that Scandinavia has to offer.

Hytteplanmila is usually a large event with 1000’s of runners (over 3000 in 2019). It is arguably the most popular 10km race in Norway and the one that attracts the best elites. However, Covid-19 has impacted on the race and for 2020 there is a special race for invited athletes only along with a virtual race. The criteria being 37.20 (38.20 *) for women and 31.20 (32.00 *) for men (10,000 meters / 10 kilometers in 2019/2020, or equivalent achievements) * If there are vacancies in the heats.

Many of Norway’s and the Nordic countries’ best long-distance runners will come to participate in this year’s elite race with eight starting fields of up to 25 runners.

The women’s race was won in 2019 by Sigrid Jervell Våg in 32:52, the previous year Meraf Bahta ran 31:58. Remarkably, the previous 6-editions dating back to 2012 ere won by Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal, her fastest time being 31:25 in 2017 which is the course record.

DATE: October 17, 2020

PLACE: Svendsrudmoen (Trongmoen 41, 3530 Røyse)

TIME: 13.30

STARTING GROUPS (seeding):

• A1 (25)
• A2 (25)
• A3 (25)
• A4 (25)
• A5 (25)
• A6 (25)
• A7 (25)
• A8 (25)

On paper, the challenge ahead of Kilian is very real and while many in the trail running world will be rooting for Kilian, the reality is that he will not be in contention for the podium or maybe even the top-10?

“I will see how I feel… but anyway, I will be far from the front guys! Being close to 29’ I will be super happy!” – Kilian Jornet

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Sondre Nordstad Moen, Samuel Tsagay, Filip Ingebrigtsen, Henrik Ingebrigtsen, Senay Fissehatsion (ERI), Urige Buta, Musael Temesghen, Richard Douma and Mesfun Tesfayohannes have all run 29:00 or less previously, so the task ahead is real.

Kilian’s ability to cross over disciplines and sports has always been an interest to sports fans all over the world and many have asked, repeatedly, “I wonder what Kilian would run in a road marathon?”

Well, Kilian had hoped to show us in 2020 having planned to run an official marathon. Maybe, if the opportunity arises, he may well still do, but Covid-19 has impacted on any road race of any significant size. However, Kilian has trained accordingly and openly admitted he did too much too soon earlier in the year.

“My plan this summer was to do mostly flat training but an injury came… After a few months injured, I start slowly to train properly in flat again. It’s curious how I was able to do anything I wanted in the mountains but couldn’t hit any meter of flat terrain without pain.”

In August, the mountain master showed us one of his favourite training sessions as his injury woes started to leave and his ability to train both flat and in the mountains returned.

“I do what I call VK10K… I run a vertical kilometer (1000m vertical ascent) run down easy and then run a flat 10km.”

He ran an astounding 29:57 for the VK and then 29:42 for the 10km. Both times incredible and while the VK time comes as no surprise, the 10km time certainly made many take a second look, especially with this coming on tired legs.

29:00 may well be possible come Saturday, one thing is for sure, it is certainly going to be interesting to see what unfolds. Unlike in mountain, ultra and trail races where the top-10 can be separated by minutes and even hours, this 10km will come down to seconds. We can certainly expect 28-minutes to 29-minutes have somewhere in the region of 10-athletes, can Kilian be one of them?

What time do you think Kilian will run?

Stats:

Course Record WOMEN: Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal 31.25 (2017)

Course Record MEN: Jakob Ingebrigtsen 27.54 (2019)

National Record WOMEN: Ingrid Kristiansen 30.59 (1989)

National Record MEN: Jakob Ingebrigtsen 27.54 (2019)

European Record Women (Paula Radcliffe (GBR) 30.21 (2003)

European Record Men: Julien Wanders (SUI) 27.13 (2020)

*****

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