Jornet and Mathys favoured to retain titles at Sierre-Zinal as African challenge rises

by Stephen Granger

Leading trail runners from the north, east and south of Africa line up tomorrow (Saturday 13 August) for one of the world’s oldest and most iconic trail races, Sierre-Zinal in Switzerland, with every chance of podium positions both the men’s and women’s races.

The fourth race in the 2022 Golden Trail World Series (GTWS), Sierre-Zinal, is rated as the fastest on the circuit. Not for nothing is its byline ‘The Fast and Furious’. While last week’s Stranda Fjord Trail Race – the third in the GTWS – attracted only those hardened trail athletes able to cope with its extreme technical challenges, tomorrow’s more runnable race over 31 kms, with “only” 2,200 meters of vertical gain, has typically been the meeting ground of athletes from a range of disciplines including track, road, cross country, triathlon, trail and mountain running.

But spectacular scenery will not be in short supply in the 48^th running of the race, rewarding those able to pause to enjoy sightings of five peaks over 4000m, including the Weisshorn (4506m) and the Matterhorn (4478m).

The race takes place in one of Europe’s warmest sunspots, with the village of Sierre nicknamed ‘the City of Sun’ for its average of 300 days of sunshine each year – something which could be advantageous for the sun-baked Africans.  With a later-than-usual starting time of 11h00 in the context of the current warm weather in Europe, it won’t be just the pace which is likely to be hot tomorrow.

Any race in which Kilian Jornet, now running for his new company Nnormal, competes usually means the rest of the field will be competing for the minor awards and tomorrow should be no different. Despite Jornet winning the gruelling Hard Rock 100miler in the USA just last month, the Spanish genius stands alone in the sport and seldom goes to the start line in less than peak form.

Much the same could be said Team Salomon Switzerland athlete, Maude Mathys, in particular at Sierre-Zinal, a race she has dominated in recent years.  The previous long-standing course records held by British athlete Jonathan Wyatt (2:29:12 in 2003) and Czech Anna Pichrtova (2:54:16 in 2008) were blown away by Jornet (2:25:35) and Mathys (2:49:20) in 2019 with both retaining their titles last year.

British 2:14 marathoner, Robbie Simpson, has done everything at Sierre-Zinal except win, his four runners-up achievements due solely to having to compete with Jornet. On Saturday the adidas TERREX athlete will almost certainly bag another podium position but whether he can finally make it to number one only Saturday will reveal.

Potentially an even stronger threat to Jornet could come from French athlete, Hassan Chahdi. Like Simpson, the 33-year-old Chahdi comes from a road and cross country background but boasts a road marathon best considerably quicker than that of Simpson. Chahdi’s 2:08:19 marathon came six months ago in Seville, Spain, as a pre-cursor to the recent World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, where he placed 17^th in 2:09:20.

While lacking Simpson’s trail experience, which could count against him the first quarter, Chahdi’s natural speed – he boasts a 10km best of 28:19 and a 1:01:21 half marathon – could prove a strong weapon in the fast second half of the race. Whether the French athlete has sufficiently recovered from the World Championship marathon last month to compete at his best at Sierre-Zinal, only time will tell.

Several African athletes will be fighting for the top five GTWS podium positions with consistent Moroccan Elhousine Elazzaoui (Team Pini Mountain Racing) leading the charge. ‘Hassan’ as he is known, currently occupies second position in the GTWS rankings and looks certain of qualifying for the finals in Madeira. He will be more at home in the drier, warmer conditions at Sierre-Zinal than the cold and wet in last week’s highly technical Stranda Fjord race in Norway, where he nonetheless was able to finish 8th.

“The race in Norway was very hard with a lot of technical challenges. It’s not for me!” admitted Elazzaoui, who has bagged consecutive top ten positions at the first three of the 2022 Golden Series– 4^th at Zegama and Mont Blanc Marathons and 8^th in Norway. “But although I still tired after Norway, I hope to get a good result at Sierre Zinal.  I know the competition will be very strong, but I hope to make a top ten place.”  

East Africans have been making their presence felt in this year’s European trail season and none more so than Team Run2gether’s Patrick Kipngeno.  The Kenyan smashed the previous record at the 19.5km Nid d’Aigle race in France by more than five minutes four weeks ago after leading from the front, a performance which will ensure he will not be able to fly under the radar tomorrow.

Kipngeno’s compatriot and Run2gether teammate, Lengen Lolkurraru, placed fourth behind Jornet, Simpson and tough Italian, Cesare Maestri in last year’s race and will be looking for support from Kipngeno to move ahead of any or all of last year’s top three in conditions likely suit the Kenyans. Team Scarpa’s Sierre-Zinal 2016 winner, Petro Mamu of Etritrea, returns for another bite at the Swiss cherry.

In spite of a below-par performance in the season-opener at Zegama due to a niggling injury, no one expects Mathys to finish out of the top one tomorrow! But the battle for second could prove intriguing with another Team Run2gether Kenyan, Joyce Njeru, clearly a major threat. Like Kipngeno, Njeru also turned in a record-breaking win at Nid d’Aigle in France last month following her win in the Gir Di Mont Uphill.

Her compatriot and teammate, Lucy Murigi, won Sierre-Zinal in 2018 after pocketing the World Mountain Running Championship title and is always competitive at Sierre-Zinal, while 2021 Otter African Trail Run champion, South Africa’s Bianca Tarboton (Team adidas TERREX) also has the necessary skill sets to excel in this race.

But in her first outing in the highly competitive Swiss event Tarboton, whose close second in the Zugspitze 25km three weeks ago proved her mettle amongst some of the fastest in the business, is likely to take a conservative approach tomorrow.

“I have no niggles and am feeling good,” said Tarboton. “I recovered from Zugspitze faster than I thought so was able to get back into training at our base in Chamonix quite soon. I’m feeling good after being overwhelmed with self-doubt a week or two back.  Then I stopped going on social media and chatted to James (Montgomery – her coach) and Rob (Simpson – her adidas TERREX teammate) and that helped to take expectations off myself. I’ve had good advice from many friends in the team and from back home.

“I also got away from the buzz in Chamonix – before the intensity of a big race, I value some still time to myself, and the chance to breath. So we’ve been camping in our camper-van about thirty minutes away from the start of the race and I enjoyed running the first 11km (uphill) of the race route the other day.”

Others likely to challenge strongly for podium positions and even a win in the women’s competition include last year’s third-placed Anaïs Sabrié (Team Salomon, France), GTWS series leader Sara Alonso (Team Salomon, Spain) and newcomer to the series, Sophia Laukli of the USA, winner of last week’s race at Stranda Fjord.