Africa’s leading trail athletes take on the best of Europe in the French Alps

by Stephen Granger

Athletes from four African countries could feature prominently at the Mont Blanc Marathon in the French Alps on Sunday (26 June) – the second in the 2022 Golden Trail World Series (GTWS).

The challenging 42km race (nicknamed Mont Blanc and its Rollercoasters), which starts and finishes at Chamonix, one of the world’s best-known trail-running hotspots, has been a fixture in the GTWS since its inception in 2018 and the competition on Sunday can be expected to be as fierce as ever.

Moroccan Elhousine Elazzoui, Kenyans Robert Pkenboi Matayango and Matthew Kiptanui Kibet, Eritrean Petro Mamu and South Africans Johardt van Heerden and Meg Mackenzie are some of Africa’s best trail athletes and will be looking to take the race to their more favoured European counterparts.

The series has been enormously successful and has significantly elevated the standard of marathon-distance trail running. Athletes from all corners of the world aspire to race the series, where top ten positions in the individual races but more especially in the league are richly rewarded, both in financial terms but equally important with regards ‘bragging rights’ and global profile in the sport.

The series has had the effect of closing the gap between the world’s best athletes, providing exciting and competitive races which are live-streamed around the planet. With one exception.  Neither advancing age nor fatherhood appear to have blunted the edge of the genius which is Kilian Jornet, whose record-breaking victory in the series opener at Zegama in Spain gave notice to the ‘best of the rest’ that the Spanish super-star might not be beatable any time soon.

Jornet, however, will not race on Sunday, opening up the top of the podium to other pretenders, notably Team Salomon Italy’s Magnini, winner of the 2019 Mont Blanc Marathon and the only athlete to race with Jornet for much of this year’s Zegama, before the Spaniard inevitably eased away at the finish.

2019 Trail Running World Champion, Jonathan Albon (Team The North Face, UK), top French athlete Thibaut Baronian(Team Salomon),  Swiss star Rémi Bonnet (Team Salomon/Redbull), Italian Nadir Maguet (Team La Sportiva) and orienteering champion Frédéric Tranchand (Team Scott, France) will all challenge strongly for podium places and maximum GTWS points on offer.

Team Pini Mountain Racing’s Elazzaoui placed fourth at Zegama and the young Moroccan continues to threaten Europe’s best on the testing alpine trails. He is confident that he will have fully recovered his strength following a recent gruelling week in the dentist’s chair and will want to put an unhappy race at Mont Blanc last year behind him.

Former Sierre Zinal winner, Team Scarpa Eritrea’s Mamu and Team SkyRunners Matayango (5th at Zegama) will undoubtedly be competitive, but it is Van Heerden’s low-profile entry to Golden Trail Series running which will be watched with interest. South Africa’s leading marathon-distance trail athlete in recent years, Van Heerden has won all the titles which matter in the land of his birth and now has the chance to test himself against the world’s best.

“My training has gone really well,” said Van Heerden from France yesterday. “Almost as good as I could have hoped for, so there will be no excuses. The vibrant energy in town approaching race day is something that excites but makes me nervous at the same time! At the end of the day, this is what I have dreamed of and I’m looking forward to expressing myself as well as possible on race day. My aim will be to give it my absolute all while still enjoying it at the same time.”

Dutch star Nienke Brinkman and 2021 champion, Maude Mathys of Switzerland, bagged the top two positions at Zegama but neither will be racing from Chamonix on Sunday. Their absence opens possibilities for the likes of French athlete Anais Sabrie (Team Sidas Matryx), runner-up to Mathys last year, Team Salomon’s Sara Alonso of Spain, winner of the Transgrancanaria 43km in March ahead of South African Toni McCann and 3^rd at Zegama, and Fabiola Conti (Team Salomon, Italy) winner of the Livigno Skymarathon 34km in Italy last week and 5^th at Zegama and talented Czech, Marcela Vasinova (Team Salomon).

Former Golden Trail World Series top-tenner, Meg Mackenzie, now has her sights set on ultra-distance trail running and had not planned to race the series this year. But a last-minute change of plan sees the North Face athlete and Chamonix resident return to one of her favourite races.

“Although my training hasn’t been marathon specific, I had been preparing to race Lavaredo Ultra-trail this weekend, so perhaps that sharp speed isn’t where it should be (for Mont Blanc Marathon). But I’m still strong and ready to give my best this weekend.  

“The competition is stronger than ever and I expect it to be a very tough and fierce day out there! It feels like Chamonix really comes alive during this event and the UTMB so it’s exciting to be around for that too.”