Limone Extreme VK – Race Report

Posted on October 11, 2013 by talkultra

As daylight disappeared on the shores of Lake Garda 192 runners departed on the quest to complete a VK under darkness with only illumination from a headlamp.

It was a fabulous spectacle as the lights of Limone glowed in the distance.

Departing in one large group it was always going to be a frantic charge for the front of the race. A clear path a huge advantage for a fast and trouble free race.

Urban Zemmer at halfway

Urban Zemmer (US La Sportiva) was a pre race favourite and he didn’t disappoint. He charged and led from the front. He wanted that Skyrunner World Series title and he needed a win today with maximum points and the current leader, Marco Facchinelli, to finish outside the top four places.

At the line Urban achieved his goal taking the win in an incredible 37:10. Second place went to Thorbjorn Ludvigsen from Norway, 37:34, third place Marco Moletto (La Sportiva) was just over a minute back in 38:37 and Kilian Jornet (Salomon) was fourth, 39:04.

The male overall rankings will have big changes after this race with current leader Marco Facchinelli finishing twenty second, Ferran Teixido Marti Ventoa (currently second), thirteenth and Joan Freixa Marcelo (currently third) in eighteenth place.

The ladies race had an interesting dynamic with Antonella Confortola (GS Forestale) looking to repeat her win at Canazei VK on the Limone course. However, Laura Orgue (Salomon Santiveri) currently lying third in the Skyrunner World series, Like Urban Zemmer would be looking for maximum points to hopefully take the overall series title.

Antonella Confortola at halfway

With grit and determination Laura took the lead and never looked back powering up the 1000m of vertical gain and crossing the line in 46:10, over 1 min ahead of Antonella Confortola who finished in 47:19. Samantha Galassi finished third in 48:27 with Brit, Tessa Hill (Arct’eryx) taking a great fourth place 48:45.

Vanessa Ortega Trancon who lead the World Series before the Limone race finished sixth and Alba Xandri Suets who was placed second finished in eigth place. These placings will without doubt affect the overall ranking.

Skyrunner World Series rankings will follow asap after the judges have checked the results and made all the necessary calculations.

European Skyrunning Championships 2013

Posted on July 11, 2013 by talkultra

Italy will host the third edition of the biennial championships. The Vertical and Sky disciplines will take place in Canazei, Trento, on July 19 & 21. The Ultra distance, for the first a championship discipline – will be celebrated in Vicenza, on July 27. The skyrunning “hall of fame” is unveiled

The third edition of the European Skyrunning Championships kicks off in Italy with not just Europe’s best, but no less than seven world championsrepresenting sixteen nations. The events will mark the first European Ultra title, as well as the Vertical and Sky distances.

Taking on all three disciplines will be super-champs Kilian Jornet and Emelie Forsberg, for whom only the sky is the limit. A number of other athletes will take on the three-race challenge but mostly the specialists are aiming for medals in their preferred categories.

The strong Spanish team includes 2011 Skyrunning World Champion Luis Alberto Hernando who will take on the Ultra with 2012 Ultra Champion Nuria Picas.

The twelve team members also include three-time World Champion, Agustì Roc and Vertical Champion Laura Orguè.

Italy will be aiming at the Vertical and Sky distances with a robust line-up headed by Vertical World Champion Urban Zemmer and Antonella Confortola who took third at the recent KM Vertical in Chamonix. The Italian squad is supported by Nicola Golinelli (4^th Mont-Blanc Marathon), Marco Facchinelli currently heading the SWS Vertical Series together with Marco Moletto (ranked 4^th). Silvia Serafini (4^th in Mont-Blanc Marathon), will race both distances while Stephanie Jimenez will take on the SkyMarathon®.

Many more world-class names have signed up to represent their county in the European Championships. Among them, the strong French team: Michel Lanne, Emilie Lecomte, Matheo Jacquemoud, Didier Zago, Celine Lafaye and Corrine Favre; Philipp Reiter and promising “new” skyrunner Florian Reichert (Germany); Ferran Teixido and Oscar Casal Mir (Andorra); Zhanna Vokueva (Russia); Csaba Nemeth (Hungary); Ionut Zinca (Rumania); Tessa Hill(Great Britain).

The Netherlands are not new to skyrunning after their first experience at the 2012 SkyGames®. They are led by Ragna Debats, 5^th at Mont-Blanc Marathon. New entries include a very strong representation from the Czech Republic with no less than thirteen team members they are determined to make an impression on the international skyrunning scene.

To date, the sixteen countries entered are: Andorra, Austria, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Great Britain, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Netherlands, Rumenia, Russia, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden.

The events kick off on July 19 in Canazei, Trento, Italy with the Vertical Kilometer®, followed by the Dolomites SkyRace® on July 21. The Ultra distance will be disputed at the Trans d’Havet just six days later in the nearby Veneto Region on July 27.

With such a deep field in every category, records are likely to tumble.

The record on the unforgiving Vertical Kilometer® course, just 2,1 km long, stands at 33’16” by Urban Zemmer and Antonella Confortola, 39’13”, back in 2008 when the course was inaugurated at the SkyGames® .

The Dolomites SkyRace® favoured by the world’s top runners offers a new challenge after record-breaking performances last year by Kilian Jornet in2h01’52 and Emelie Forsberg, in 2h26’00. The challenging and often technical course represents one of the toughest proving grounds for the relatively short distance: 22 km but with 1,750m climb to the summit of the Piz Boè which, at 3,152m altitude, towers majestically above the start and finish of the race in Canazei.

Moving on to the much anticipated Ultra, the Trans d’Havet is an 80 km point to point with 5,500m vertical climb traversing the Piccole Dolomiti in the Veneto Region. The route, technical in stretches, includes 6 km of tunnels.

Course records at last year’s launch were: 10h58’44” by Daniele Palladino (ITA) and Francesca Canepa (ITA) 11h44’45’’.

The winning formula? Easy: the European Skyrunning Championships are open with individual titles at stake in each discipline. Ranking is based on the sum of the highest points scored in two out of three events. The national title is based on the score of the first three men and one woman in all three events.

Vertical

Dolomites Vertical Kilometer®, Canazei, Trento, July 19

Sky

Dolomites SkyRace®, Canazei, Trento, July 21

Ultra

Trans d’Havet, 80k, Piovene R, Piccole Dolomiti, Vicenza – July 27

Skyrunning Website HERE

VK images from Mont Blanc

Posted on June 29, 2013 by talkultra

Simple really, start here and go up for 1000 vertical meters and then stop. Fastest wins… ! Nothing like a good old time trial to get the heart going.

Pioneered by the International Skyrunning Federation (ISF), the Vertical Kilometer really is a fantastic sport. Entertaining to watch and of course due to the staggered start, one has the opportunity to see each runner in close detail. More news to follow on the race but here are the results and images from the day.

Resuts:

Men

1°Saul Antonio Padua Rodriguez 36’040 nouveau record
2°Kilian Jornet 36’23
3°Eirik-Dagssonn Haugsnes 36’32

Ladies

1°Christel Dewalle 43’03 record
2°Laura Orgue 44’23
3°Antonella Confortola 44’25
4°Emelie Forsberg 46’25

LINKS:

Skyrunning HERE

Cara Amòn Vertical Kilometer

Posted on May 22, 2013 by talkultra

Zemmer and Orgué

2012 Vertical Kilometer® world champions, Italian Urban Zemmer and Spaniard, Laura Orgué win Saturday’s Cara Amòn Vertical Kilometer^®, second race in the Vertical Series after Mount Elbrus.

Cold, rain, wind and snow above 1,500m prompted the organisers to choose a safer, alternative route. The new course followed the original 2012 SkyGames^® route in Barruera Vall de Boi in the Spanish Pyrenees. Initially the same for the first 500m climb, the course then deviated to summit the Corona del Pina at 2,053m where the runners were greeted with 25 cm of fresh snow. The race totalled 980m vertical climb over 4.8km distance, shorter than the planned event.

Despite the desperate climatic conditions, 200 participants took part. Among the top runners present, three-times skyrunning world champion Agustí Roc, winner of the Vertical Kilometer® category at the 2012 SkyGames, who came a close second to Zemmer. Zemmer’s team mate, Marco Fachinelli, winner of the Mount Elbrus Vertical Kilometer®, now leads the Vertical Series ranking together with La Sportiva.

The women’s field was strongly led from the start by Laura Orgué (Salomon Santiveri), followed by Britain’s Tessa Hill (Arc’teryx) second, and Spaniard, Alba Xandri (FEEC), third.

SWS Team partners Salomon, La Sportiva and Arc’teryx all had an excellent race, featuring in the top five in both men’s and women’s categories.

Race results

Men
1. Urban Zemmer (La Sportiva) – 39:26
2. Agustí Roc (Likesport) – 39:34
3. Marco Fachinelli (La Sportiva) – 39:40
4. Didier Zago (Arc’teryx) – 40:35
5. Marco Moletto (La Sportiva) – 41.30

Women
1. Laura Orgue (Salomon Santiveri) – 47:23
2. Tessa Hill (Arc’teryx) – 49:59
3. Alba Xandri (FEEC) – 51:51

Calendar:

VERTICAL
1. RUSSIA: Mount Elbrus Vertical Kilometer®, Mount Elbrus – May 7
2. SPAIN: Cara Amón Vertical Kilometer®, Barruera – May 18
3. FRANCE: KM Vertical, Chamonix – June 28
4. GREECE: Gerania Vertical Kilometer®, Loutraki – September 8
5. ITALY: Vertical Grèste de la Mughéra, Limone sul Garda – October 11

Link:

Skyrunning – skyrunning.com

Looking back, Moving forward – Skyrunning

Posted on November 22, 2012 by talkultra

Looking back over the 2012 skyrunning season, it was, to say the least, an intensive year. It was a year of major transition from the past format of main races and trials, to the introduction of the Ultra distance and separate circuits. The transition was complicated and not without difficulties but it paved the way for a completely revised 2013 format.

The season saw triumph and tragedy, great champions, bright young stars, new races and spectacular locations.

At the beginning of the season in May, the introduction of the Ultra Series wrote a new page in skyrunning history. The Transvulcania Ultra Marathon not only perfectly embodied skyrunning’s “sea to sky” concept, but had probably the deepest field of world class runners to date, including American legends like Anton Krupicka, Geoff Roes, Rickey Gates, Mike Wolfe Joe Grant and 21year-old Dakota Jones who went on to win the race. Dakota, Tony and Joe came back for more…

The more gruelling courses typical of European skyrunning have almost surprisingly gone down well with the American runners, giving us the conviction to keep it “tough and technical“ rather than provide a watered-down version to appeal to a wider public – something to look forward to on the other side of the Atlantic next year together with a selection of the best that Europe has to offer…and our first 100-miler.

The 2012 SkyMarathon^® Ultra Series has represented the first and most important encounter among top European and American Ultra runners with a level so high that all the mens’ race records in the Series were broken! Legendary ultra runners competing in the Series (apart from those mentioned above) include: Kilian Jornet, Ikker Karera, Andy Symonds, Dawa Sherpa, Francois D’Haene, Erik Clavery, Seb Chaigneau and among the women: Nuria Picas, Anna Frost, Lizzy Hawker, Maud Gobert, Darcy Africa, and Nikki Kimball.

Kilian Jornet the sport’s top star, yet again gave a command performance taking not only the World Series combined title, but also the Ultra Series title, totalling seven outright victories and two third positions in all three disciplines. 2011 World Series champion Luis Alberto Hernando placed second and Britain’s Tom Owens moved steadily up the ranking to take third position. Ultra Series’ runner-up was Andy Symonds and Germany’s Philipp Reiter placed third.

Emelie Forsberg, Nuria Picas, Anna Frost. Ultra Cavalls winners. ©ISF It’s in the women’s field that the most rapid revolution lies however. Young, talented runners with no skyrunning history debut and rise to glory in just one season and, note, women are finishing in the top ten overall, closing the gender gap. Sweden’s Emelie Forsberg is one of these ladies. Twenty-five years-old, she ran her first skyrunning race just this year and in only one season conquered the World Series combined title in a field stacked with highly competitive Spanish runners like Nuria Picas, Blanca Maria Serrano and Nuria Dominguez.

Nuria Picas has finally shown that talent and determination go a long way by winning some of the toughest races on the Series. She finished second after Forsberg in the World Series combined ranking and won the Ultra Series outright. Anna Frost, after a superb start at the Transvulcania Ultra, was plagued by injury throughout the season but fought tenaciously for a second position in the Ultra ranking where Forsberg placed third.

Alongside Forsberg, another star was born: 23 year-old Italian, Silvia Serafini who, like Forsberg, began skyrunning just this year, testing her skills in all three disciplines to climb to third position in the world ranking.

Two world records highlighted the Vertical Kilometer^® Series on the gruelling course in Fully, Switzerland with1,000 metres elevation gain over just 1.9 km distance. The men’s record of 30’42” set by Italian Urban Zemmer is just a short step from climbing at 2,000 metres per hour – upwards! French runner Christel Dewalle set the women’s record in 36’48”. Overall Vertical Kilometer^® Series champions were Urban Zemmer and Spain’s Laura Orgué.

In 2012, prize money amounting to €140,000 (including the Series’ final prizes) was awarded to 148 athletes. The figures are still small for the huge effort and incredible performances involved, but as the sport grows, prize money will do like-wise. Complimentary accommodation, travel subsidies and promotion are more ways that a top runner can benefit – and so will the sponsor. Major industry players are now investing in trail running and many brands have top runners and teams participating in the Series. See Team ranking

Media coverage of skyrunning events reached new heights this year from print to websites, blogs and social media, to videos, podcasts and television on a global level. A big thanks goes to all those who followed the skyrunning heroes through thick and thin, in heat and cold and darkness, breaking news in real time and capturing high-flying emotions in images, text and videos.

Look out for the 2013 Skyrunner® World Series calendar to be announced next week. We’ll be focussing on new events and personalities, a worldwide ranking for runners and races, regulations and safety issues as well as the announcement of the 2013 European and 2014 World Championships.