24th IAU 100km World Championships – Victories for Shinji Nakadai and Ellie Greenwood
The 24th IAU 100km World Championships held on November 7 in Gibraltar has been claimed by Shinji Nakadai and Ellie Greenwood. The team divisions for men’s and women’s were won by Japan and Great Britain respectively.
The IAU world championship of this year was more important than usual as this time the European championship was also incorporated into it. While participating into the event, Jonas Buud from Sweden defended his European Championship title while Greenwood
succeeded in adding the women’s European title to her global crown. In the competitions for European Championships, France bagged the men’s title while Great Britain claimed the women’s title.
The event was attended by 180 athletes from 30 nations, while the race day temperatures were ideal, hanging at the mid teens. The race course started about 100 meters away from the athletes’ village and made the runners go onto a 5km loop which was to be
repeated eighteen times before crossing the finishing time.
In men’s event, the victory came to Japan’s Shinji Nakadi, he crossed the distance in six hours, forty three minutes and forty four seconds. With time clocked six hours, forty seven minutes and forty seconds, Jonas Buud from Sweden, who had claimed silver
medal last year, followed Nakadai for second position this year as well. Michael Wardian from USA claimed third position at the podium for six hours, forty nine minutes and eighteen seconds. This was his third consecutive bronze medal in the IAU event.
Nakadai had been quite conservative while planting his race in the chase group for the major part of the total distance. He remained in the mob until 87 kilometres mark where from he took the lead from Wardian and was never again headed.
Wardian had gained the lead of the race when he surged mid-way, maintaining good distance from the followers. Even after going above the 80 kilometres he was looking strong to grab the title; however, he was eventually outdone by Nakadai and Buud and could
only stand for third position.
Buud on the other hand ran more consistently, he remained there in the chasing group until the 75km mark was covered, after which he made his final move and joined the leading pack and ultimately ended with silver. Buud also successfully claimed the European
title with Ukraine’s Oleksandr Holovnytskkyy taking the second position and Andre Collet from Germany to bag the bronze medal.
In team competitions, Japan bagged the men’s World division while USA followed the suit for the silver medal and France ending up with the bronze. However, France succeeded in holding the European Championships men’s division, the Britain contingent claimed
the silver medal and Germany ended up holding the bronze.
On women’s side, Ellie Greenwood from Great Britain, the girl known for trail expertise proved to be an admirable runner on roads as well. While claiming the title, Greenwood had to challenge the pre-favourite teammate and former World Champion Lizzy Hawker
for major part of the race. However, she managed to outdo her and claimed her victory for crossing the finishing line in seven hours, twenty nine minutes and five seconds.
Hawker remained in the leading position for most part of the race, however, while reaching close to the finishing line the girl faded away and could only finish at third position for making it to the finishing line in seven hours, thirty three minutes and
twenty six seconds.
The second position at the podium was claimed by Monica Carlin from Italy. Carlin who had a series of podium finishes at IAU events had bagged bronze medal in last year’s event. This year, despite of being recently healed up from a fractured metatarsal in
her foot, she ran marvellously well to improve her position on the podium.
The top three finishers of the women’s event also bagged the European championships individual honours, while in women’s team competitions, Great Britain managed to win the gold followed by Italy and Japan.
Tags: