by The American ultra-trail runner Caleb Olson was a surprise winner of the Californian strenuous Western Endurance Run on Saturday, which emerged from the scorching canyons of North California to win the victory in front of the Spanish Star Kilian Jornet, who was third.
This year’s operation of the 100-mile event (161 kilometers) was invoiced as one of the most competitive expenditure in the 52-year history of the race.
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Around 15 elite runners have transferred the highlight of the course around 2,600 meters above sea level over the sea level after a start of 5:00 a.m. (1200 GMT) in the Olympic Valley around 2,600 meters.
After the runners were confronted by the brutal heat of canyons by cool snow fields of the Sierra Nevada Mountains, in which the temperatures approached 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).
The irreconcilable combination of extreme heat and rough terrain – together with around 5,500 meters climbing – demanded the usual tribute in the field.
The 29 -year -old Olson, the average pace of almost 12 kilometers per hour, rose in the front in the middle of the race and never looked back.
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He broke the tape at the end of the Auburn High School in 14 hours, 11 minutes and 25 seconds – just two minutes ahead of Jim Walmsley’s price record (14:09:28).
Walmsley, a three -time winner, withdrew from this year’s race.
After fifth place in 2024, Olson’s victory cemented its place in the elite of the Ultra Trail race.
Born in Salt Lake City, he had previously earned top 20 surfaces in the “CCC”, the 100 km sister race for the famous Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc in Chamonix.
– Restricted entry –
Chris Myers claimed second place after leaving Olson with Olson throughout the race. The Spaniard Jornet was third, in a repetition of his goal in the western states in 2010.
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The 37 -year -old Jornet returned 14 years after his only win in the race at this year’s event to test themselves against a new generation of athletes on the fast, exposed paths.
Despite his renowned spiritual hardness, Jornet could not close the gap during the hottest parts of the race.
In the past 15 years, he has contributed to increasing the profile of the trail running and expanding the attraction of the niche endurance tracking.
Even when preparing the elite and the latest refrigerated strategies, nobody is immune to the challenges of the Western countries.
Simply earning a bib to driving in the event – which is limited to 369 participants – is a performance in itself.
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Elite runners can qualify via one of the 30 “golden tickets” that are awarded for selected races.
For everyone else, the entry depends on an annual lottery from Livestream, which draws almost 10,000 hopes of hope, some of whom are waiting for a decade to be called.
For first applicants, the chances float by around 0.04 percent and only improves with years of patience and additional qualified ultras.
Even after the hurdles have been overcome for entry, some runners do not have the course.
Among those who had to withdraw this year was the American runner David Roche, an emerging star of sport who won his two earlier 100 mile.
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Roche appeared visibly shaken with a loud cheers at the Foresthill aid station in Mile 62 and finally had to withdraw.
“I’m worried about David,” his father Michael Roche told AFP. “I’ve never seen him in this kind of state.”
RG/RCW/SCO
