Golden Trail showdown spectacular in North Atlantic

Remi Bonnet and Nienke Brinkman were crowned the 2022 Golden Trail World Series champions after decisive performances at the Golden Trail Series Grand Final at the Madeira Ocean&Trails® Stage Race over the past five days, while African athletes turned in their strongest Golden Trail showing to date to clinch no fewer than three places in the top ten positions in the 2022 men’s rankings.

The north Atlantic Portuguese archipelago of Madeira is a favourite tourist destination in October, partly due to its mild climate with an average daily maximum temperature of 24 C anda likelihood of cloudless skies.

Last week the island hosted a different category of tourists – many of the world’s leading marathon-distance trail athletes – and served up distinctly ‘non-average’ weather for the Golden Trail occasion, with prevailing rain, low cloud and cold weather interrupted only intermittently with bursts of sunshine, which added both to the technical difficulty of the trails and the number of cuts and bruises suffered in high-speed falls.

While there was no doubt Salomon teammates Bonnet (Switzerland) and Brinkman (Holland) were in leagues of their own, both finishing over 30 minutes clear of their closest rival in the Grand Final and more than 200 points clear in the overall 2022 GTWS rankings, African athletes contended the Golden Trail Grand Final as never before.

Moroccan athlete, Elhousine Elazzaoui, who placed fourth at the 2020 Golden Trail Stage Race Championship in Azores, was the only athlete to beat Bonnet on Madeira, with an impressive win in the short-distance time-trial on Friday. And in a dramatic 27km final day,  Elazzaoui ran a superb tactical race to finish second to Bonnet, beating French athlete, Thibault Baronian, into fifth and enabling the Moroccan to finish second in the overall GTWS 2022 rankings, just 6 points clear of Baronian.

Talented Eritrean, Petro Mamu (Scarpa), finally combined talent and tactics to optimal effect, teaming up with fellow-African Elazzaoui for much of the final stage to place third in the stage and fourth overall in the five-stage event. His performance was enough to edge out injured defending champion, Bart Przedwojewski, for 10^th position in the GTWS 2022 rankings.

Strong-running Kenyan Robert Pkenboi Matayango (Sky Runners Kenya) chose not to race the second stage, but his two fifth and two sixth positions on Madeira were sufficient to ensure a solid sixth place in the final GWTS rankings, just five points behind American Eli Hemming.

Young Kenyan, Daudin/On Running athlete, Philiares Kisang, proved a revelation.  After placing third in her first ever trail race, the Golden Trail World Series’ Sierra Zinal 31km in Switzerland in August, she came to the Grand Final on Madeira as a complete trail novice. Few expected her to cope with the island’s technically challenging trails, especially in the prevailing stormy weather conditions.

Not only did Kisang overcome falls, scrapes and bruises on each stage to score top ten positions each day, she placed fifth overall for the GTWS Grand Final, taking third place in the ‘Climb’ category behind Brinkman and Marcela Vasinova of Czech Republic. And such was the courage of her campaign that she earned the nod as ‘Athlete of the Week’ from the GTWS TV media team.

Two athletes – Bonnet in the Climb category and Norwegian downhill daredevil, Anders Kjaerevik, in the downhill category – retained their titles they won in 2020 on the Azores and mostly experienced trail athletes dictated the top positions in the men’s competition.

But it was a cast of talented athletes relatively new to the sport who made their presence felt in the women’s contest, including Brinkman, a 2 hr 22 min road marathoner, and charismatic American Allie McLaughlin, who raced selectively and decisively, winning the first and last stages, the last in fancy-dress to celebrate her 32^nd birthday.

“Honestly, it was war today!” said Elazzaoui. “We were fighting against each other in the group chasing the leader Remi. Petro (Mamu) and I worked together, he helped me so much today. We took it in turns to spur the other one on, sometimes he was pulling me sometimes it was me pulling him, and it worked! I’m really happy because I finished in second place in the GTWS 2022 overall ranking. My dream was to finish in the top 3 and I did it!”

It was mutual respect from the top Africans, with Mamu equally effusive in his praise of Elazzaoui.

“I’m really pleased with this third place,” Mamu reflected. “Elhousine and I had an agreement, and I must thank him from the bottom of my heart because he helped me a lot today. I loved today’s race course which was less technical and suited me much better. It was longer than the other days, so I started out slowly before accelerating in the last 12 kilometres. I’m very happy how I managed my race today.”