Elhousine Elazzaoui and Katie Schide have been named Trail Runners of the Year (TROY) for 2024, following a global poll of trail running experts from around the world, coordinated by Freetrail, a USA-based trail-running organisation.
The “Flying Camel”, as the Moroccan is known, ruled the roost in the 2024 Golden Trail World Series, while Schide was a shoe-in at number one among the women following record-breaking 100 mile performances at the Western States Endurance Run and Ultra-trail Mont Blanc.
The fact that they topped lists, which include legends of the sport such as Kilian Jornet and Jim Walmsley in the men’s rankings and Courtney Dauwalter and Ruth Croft in the women’s, underlines the strength of their 2024 season of trail.
TROY ranks trail running performances in formal races throughout 2024 with due regard to the depth of competition and consistency and versatility of performances throughout the year.
Five male and female athletes from Africa feature in the 2024 rankings, a 500% increase on last year’s rankings when Toni McCann (4th) was the sole athlete from Africa to make the rankings and an indication of the enhanced global perspective of the rankings as much as improved performances by athletes from Africa.
Moroccan Elazzaoui (1st), Kenyans Joyce Njeru, Patrick Kipngeno and Joyline Chepngeno (3rd, 3rd and 8th respectively) and South African Toni McCann (6th) made up the African contingent.
Although voting for athletes is open to the general public, the credibility of the poll has been enhanced through its weighting algorithm, which vests 80% of the vote in selected trail media, industry professionals and professional trail runners.
Intriguingly, the Freetrail rankings do not differentiate between distances raced (“everything from VKs to 200+ mile races”) and the top ten rankings include athletes who have excelled both at ultra-trail and sub-marathon distances.
At the ultra-distance extreme, British athlete Jasmin Paris deserves her 7th-ranked place following her extraordinary run in last year’s Barkley Marathon, becoming the first female athlete to complete the gruelling 100 miler, while Chepngeno’s impressive victories at the 31km Sierre Zinal and the 24km final of the Golden Trail World Series in Italy more than justifies her 8th place as a sub-marathon specialist.
As impressive is the depth of research underpinning the database of information leading to selections and the directives and guidelines on voting criteria, the context and origins of Freetrail and their support base inevitably results in a bias in favour of athletes who have succeeded in higher-profile ultra-distance races, often those in the USA.
To their credit, Freetrail is transparent about this bias and urged voters to consider their “advanced-level knowledge of the international dynamics in the sport, including which races are significant across the myriad of international event series (World Mountain Running Association, Golden Trail Series, UTMB World Series, Skyrunning, etc.)
Nonetheless, shorter-distance and mountain running specialists are poorly represented in the rankings.
Mountain-running specialists such as German athlete Nina Engelhard, who won both mountain running titles at the European Off-road Championships, Swiss mountain runner, Roberto Delorenzi, who claimed the gold medal in the European Championship Up and Down Race and Kenyan Philemon Kiriago, who ran a record-breaking Kilian Jornet a desperately close second at Sierre Zinal, arguably the most competitive trail race on the planet, were unlucky to miss out.
And given the emphasis on versatility and consistency of performance, a strong case could have been made for the inclusion of French athlete Thomas Cardin, whose 2024 racing CV included wins ranging from the shorter-distance 23km Marathon du Mont Blanc to the 80km Grand Trail Des Templiers as well as the gold medal in the marathon-distance trail race at the European Off-Road Championships.
But there were no disputing the claims to the top rung of Elazzaoui and Schide as a look at their season highlights confirms:
Elhousine Elazzaoui’s 2024 Highlights:
- 1st place overall Golden Trail World Series
- Course record at the Marathon du Mont-Blanc
- 4 victories on the Golden Trail World Series including the World Final
Katie Schide’s 2024 Highlights:
- 1st place Canyons 100k
- 1st place, 2nd fastest time ever Western States 100
- 1st place, course record UTMB
Elazzaoui was delighted at the TROY cherry on his exceptional 2024 cake.
“From my first trail races in 2018, to races I never thought I would finish to being nominated as Trail Runner of the Year…this journey has been about perseverance and chasing dreams,” Elazzaoui told SPNA this week.
“But it’s also about the people who believed in me and the encouragement I’ve had from the fans. Dreams come true when you run with heart, with passion, and with purpose. And with a smile!
“To Freetrail, my family, my friends, and my team NNormal, thank you for believing in me.”
More controversially, the Trail Performance of the Year (TPOY) went to Jasmin Paris for her remarkable run at the Barkley Marathon and American David Roche for improving Matt Carpenter’s long-standing record at the Leadville 100miler.
Jasmin Paris. Photo – Instagram
While there is little doubt both were historic milestone performances, strong cases could be made, in terms of the depth of competition criteria, for runner-ups Katie Schide’s record-breaking win at the UTMB 100 miler and Kilian Jornet’s race record at Sierra Zinal to have taken overall honours.
Trail Runner of the Year: The Final Standings
Women
(1) Katie Schide (USA)
(2) Courtney Dauwalter (USA)
(3) Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya)
(4) Rachel Drake (USA)
(5) Ruth Croft (NZ)
(6) Toni McCann (RSA)
(7) Jasmin Paris (UK)
(8) Joyline Chepngeno (Kenya)
(9) Fuzhao Xiang (China)
(10) Judith Wyder.(Switzerland)
Men
(1) Elhousine Elazzaoui (Morocco)
(2) Hayden Hawks (USA)
(3) Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya)
(4) David Roche (USA)
(5) Kilian Jornet (Spain)
(6) David Sinclair (USA)
(7) Eli Hemming (USA)
(8) Jim Walmsley (USA)
(9) Ludovic Pommeret (France)
(10) Vincent Bouillard (France)
Trail Performance of the Year: The Final Standings
Women
- Jasmin Paris – The Barkley Marathons
The first female to finish the 100+ mile event - Katie Schide – UTMB® Mont Blanc – UTMB
Schide ran into a league of her own, setting a new course record over the 170km route in 22:09:31. - Courtney Dauwalter – Hardrock 100 Endurance Run (Clockwise)
Establishing the clockwise and overall women’s course record in 26:11:49. - Katie Schide – Western States 100
Schide won while putting up the second fastest time in WSER race history in 15:46:57. - Rachel Drake – JFK 50 Mile
First woman to break six hours setting a new JFK 50-mile course record in 5:57:32.
Men
- David Roche – Leadville Trail 100
Roche broke Matt Carpenter’s time from 2005 by over 16 minutes in running 15:26:34. - Kilian Jornet – Sierre-Zinal
Kilian won his 10th Sierre-Zinal in August breaking his own course record from 2019 running 2:25:34.
- David Sinclair – JFK 50 Mile
Sinclair broke the course record by ten minutes, running an outstanding 5:08:26. - Ludovic Pommeret – Hardrock 100 Endurance Run (Clockwise)
Just shy of his 49th birthday Pommeret won Hardrock establishing an overall course record of 21:33:06. - Vincent Bouillard – UTMB® Mont Blanc – UTMB
Bouillard, the senior product engineer for HOKA, outlasted the favourites to take the win in a historically fast 19:54:23.
