Luis Alberto Hernando (ESP) and Caroline Chaverot (FR) Are Long Distance Trail World Champs
Press Release / 28.11.2016
The 6th Trail World Championships were held in Portugal in the Gêrès nature reserv and the favourites Luis Alberto and Caroline Chaverot claimed their titles at the end of a technical and demanding 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. 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. 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 Ludo 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.
On the women's side, the duel anticipated between the double title holder Nathalie Mauclair (FR) and the favourite Caroline Chaverot (FR) 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 Emelie Forsberg and Azara Garcia. The Swedish abandoned after the first refreshment point and the Spaniards was over-taken by Caroline Chaverot (France) 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, 3rd.
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 Argentinean Veronica Ramirez took 17th position.
Up Coming
While waiting for the possible next World championships outside of Europe favouring a little more the Asian or American contingents, the next Trail World Championships over a Medium distance will be held in June 2017 in Italy at Badia Prataglia.
The titles of Trail World Champion awarded this year over a long distance will be re-disputed in 2018 in Spain in Penyagolosa.
The complete results with the calculation of runner's rating are available on the ITRA web-site: itra.run
