Lightfoot Battles Malaysian Heat for Skyrunner World Series Bronze
News Release / 29.10.2009
Deemed as 'the World's Toughest Mountain Race', the Mount Kinabalu International Climbathon is the ultimate challenge for those game-enough to test their endurance on Mount Kinabalu in a 21km event.
Sunday's men's race saw hot and humid conditions and in a race won by Salomon superman Kilian Jornet, Cumbrian-runner Lightfoot battled to 10th place. Ricky was closely followed by short-distance specialist Nick Swinburn in 11th, who also caps off a year of great success in the mountains.
<i>"I was a little disappointed with 10th to be honest",</i> said a philosophical Lightfoot, <i>"but I did enough to finish 3rd overall in the series so I am pleased. I took a fall at the very top of the descent and as a result the lace snapped on my Salomon Speed Cross 2's, so it slowed me on the decent quite a bit, as my shoe kept coming off.
All the same it was a fantastic race and it certainly lives up to the tag of 'worlds toughest mountain race', I'll be back for another crack at it next year."</i>
In Saturday's women's race Natalie White continued her strong late-season form running into 9th place. This was enough to lift Natalie into 12th in the 2009 World Series list, no mean achievement considering her early-season problems.
<i>"Overall I am pretty happy with that",</i> said White <i>"the heat was really tough, and the field was very strong in-depth. After missing much of the first half of the year to come second at Ben Nevis, win 2 Turbo Xs and finish 9th here, is pretty good. If I can keep in one piece over the winter I should be raring to go again in 2010!"</i>, she concludes.
In the team event the Saab Salomon Outdoor Team finished in 4th in this season-long series.
SleepMonsters
