Trail World Championships 2016 / Post-race Report
2016 Trail World Championships
An IAU competition in conjunction with ITRA
Braga, Portugal
This weekend the 6th Trail World Championships were held in Portugal in the Gêrès nature reserve. The favourites Luis Alberto Hernando and Caroline Chaverot claimed their places at the end of a technical and demanding race.
Men's race
For the men, the French made life difficult for the Spaniard Luis Alberto Hernando. At mid-race there were 5 of them accompanying him before the Spaniard broke away after the last difficult and technical ascent to fly towards a well earned and well managed finish.
Luis Alberto didn’t cease in cutting his lead until he had 10 minutes at the finish line. He has completed an exceptional year after his victories in the Transvulcania or even the Buff Epic Trail. Behind the Spaniard, they created a rerun of the last Championships in France. The 2 french leaders were not able to give any explanation 2 months earlier during a controversial race.
This time Nicolas Martin, 2nd had reason after the 2015 World Championships and recent French Champion Sylvain Court, 3rd. The top 5 was completed by the Frenchmen Benoit Cori and Ludovic Pommeret. The Swiss Diego Pazos, one of the revelations of the year, helped himself to a good 6th place.
The team victory was logically for France, followed by the Spaniards and the German. The United States were far from their usual place with a disappointing 15th place far behind the first non European: Japan 9th, Brazil 13th and Venezuela 14th.
Women's race
On the women’s side, the duel anticipated between the double title holder Nathalie Mauclair and the other favourite did not actually take place due to an injury of the former in the first few kilometres.
The race went very fast due to the impulsion of the Swedish Emelie Forsberg and the Spaniard Azara Garcia. The former melted away after the first refreshment point and subsequently abandoned.
The second was over-taken by Caroline Chaverot but led a tough battle up to the end. She regained just less than 30 seconds over around 20 kilometres from the finish line before finally letting go. The French girl has also completed an exceptional year after victories in the Transgrancanaria, UTMB and the Buff Epic Trail.
Azara Garcia realised a good second place in front of the Dutch girl Ragna Debats. Nathalie Mauclair despite her injury returned to the race to take a good 4th place and allowed the French girls to keep their team title in front of Spain and Great Britain. The first non-European, the japanese Yuri Yoshizumi was classed 13th and the Argentian Veronica Ramirez took 17th position.
Results
The complete results of these Trail World Championships are available on the organisation’s web-site via their time-keeper: lap2go
Or on the ITRA web-site with the calculation of runner’s rating: itra.run
Men's results
1 Luis Alberto Hernando (ESP) 08:20:26
2 Nicolas Martin (FRA) 08:30:05
3 Sylvain Court (FRA) 08:30:39
4 Benoît Cori (FRA) 08:36:25
5 Ludovic Pommeret (FRA) 08:44:15
6 Diego Pazos (SUI) 08:53:59
7 Aurélien Collet (FRA) 08:55:57
8 Tofol Castañer (ESP) 08:58:27
9 Andy Symonds (GBR) 09:00:39
10 Stephan Hugenschmidt (GER) 09:01:18
Women's results
1 Caroline Chaverot (FRA) 09:39:39
2 Azara Garcia (ESP) 09:45:01
3 Ragnat Debats (HOL) 09:47:37
4 Nathalie Mauclair (FRA) 10:13:36
5 Gemma Arenas (ESP) 10:21:11
6 Kathrin Götz (SUI) 10:30:40
7 Jo Meek (GBR) 10:36:12
8 Beth Pascall (GBR) 10:41:34
9 Mickaela Mertova (CZE) 10:42:58
10 Teresa Nimes (ESP) 10:44:07
Team Men's results
1 France 25:37:10
2 Spain 26:26:02
3 Germany 28:24:03
4 Norway 28:30:54
5 Portugal 28:42:29
6 Italy 29:02:56
7 Finland 29:19:34
8 Switzerland 29:34:15
9 Japan 29:44:03
10 Holland 30:17:52
Team Women's results
1 France 30:38:12
2 Spain 30:50:19
3 Great Britain 33:04:37
4 Czech Republic 34:07:34
5 Switzerland 34:07:43
6 Portugal 34:55:58
7 Germany 35:12:58
8 Italy 35:51:18
9 Holland 36:33:15
10 Japan 37:07:39
Up Coming
While waiting for the possible next World championships outside of Europe favouring a little more the Asian or American contingents, the Trail World Championships over a medium distance will be held in June 2017 in Italy at Badia Prataglia. The titles of champion of the world of Trail awarded this year over a long distance will be re-disputed in 2018 in Spain in Penyagolosa.