Canillo, Andorra | LOUIS JADWONG | Uganda again put up a dominant performance at the World Mountain Running Championships on Sunday, bagging 11 medals including a clean sweep of the men and junior men's race.
They won eight individual medals - the men, junior men, junior women gold - plus three team golds.
"The men's battle saw a clean sweep from Uganda. Robert Chemonges (winner picture above), Joel Ayeko, and Victor Kiplangat put on a dominant display. Joe Gray (USA) went with them early and pulled away from the chasing pack but couldnt hold the speed of the African's," reported the World Mountain Running Association website.
Chemonges beat defending champion Kiplangat also from Uganda, who took bronze.
The site went on to report that this year's championships were held under clear skies and in the beautiful mountains above Canillo, Andorra.
The Junior races started into an immediate steep climb followed by a forest trail leading to the final steep kilometres with the junior women's event being a close battle where Uganda arrived with two runners on the podium in defending champion Risper Chebet (1st) and Betty Chebet (3rd) while Germany's Lisa Oed split them for the silver medal.
The Junior men's race started very fast and over the early stages Uganda pushed hard and ran away with the the tree podium positions. First home was Dan Chebet, 2nd Mathew Chepkrui and 3rd Oscar Chelimo, who was the defending champion.
It was only the Senior Women race won by Kenyan defending champion Lucy Wambui Murigi that Uganda failed to get a medal.
Race winners won $1500 each, runners-up $1000 and third $500.
*****
****MUNDIAL #CARRERASDEMONTAÑA 2018 ANDORRA WMRA (34ª ed) Kenia y Uganda copan los podios del mundial corto. En 2019 K42 Argentina unificara citas 14k-42k para @iaaforg @WMRAmountainrun. Crónica > https://t.co/pqkuybcb8p 📸 @corsainmontagna #mountainrunning pic.twitter.com/ADrrOpkvMI— Carrerasdemontanacom (@CarrerasMontana) September 17, 2018
This year, 40 nations competed at the 34th World Mountain Running champs by WMRA/IAAF. It's one of Europe's smaller countries but it boasts very big mountains and was a perfect location for the 2018 Championships.Senior men's teams. pic.twitter.com/QbuJj2Fjmi— WMRA (@WMRAmountainrun) September 16, 2018
On steep mountain tracks, athletes from all over the world battled it out in a discipline now growing to global level after the recent announcement of the co-operation between the WMRA / ITRA and the IAAF.
Very few runners in the history of Mountain Running have been able to win back to back. For first time on an uphill only World Mountain Champs the distances were equal for men and women - 10km for seniors, and 5km for juniors.
No comments:
Post a Comment