By Stephen Granger
Several of Africa’s leading trail athletes take on the best in the world on Saturday (7 August) at one of the biggest and oldest races on the calendar – the Sierre Zinal (SZ) 31km – raced over scenic mountain trails between the towns of Sierre and Zinal
Labelled as the Golden Trail World Series’ “Fast and Furious”, the SZ is not known for its challenging technical terrain, the runnable trails providing road runners with a perfect opportunity to compete with trail specialists on a relatively level playing field. And with Sierre nicknamed ‘the City of Sun’ for its average of 300 days of sunshine each year, the typically sunny and dry conditions provide further advantages to ‘roadies’.
Spectacular scenery will not be in short supply, with the course boasting sightings of five snow-covered peaks over 4000m, including the Weisshorn (4506m) and the Matterhorn (4478m).
The race is in its 47th year and after a COVID-enforced, elites-only version of the race last year, will once again bring together athletes from a range of abilities and disciplines, including track, road, cross country and triathlon.
The previous long-standing course records of British athlete Jonathan Wyatt (2:29:12 in 2003) and Czech Anna Pichrtova (2:54:16 in 2008) were blown away by Kilian Jornet (2:25:35) and Maude Mathys (2:49:20) in 2019. Both athletes retained their titles last year and will be aiming for a hat-trick of wins when they line up tomorrow.
Jornet’s participation marks his entry into the 2021 Golden Trail World Series. Few would contend that the Spanish ‘mountain magician’ has been the world’s best all-around trail athlete of the past decade and his appearance on the start line of any off-road race typically resigns the rest of the field to fight it out for minor placings.
In Jornet’s absence, Stian Angermund posted a perfect score of 300 points in the first three2021 GTWS races, Zegama, Mont Blanc and Dolomyths, representing three decisive victories. The Norwegian is unable to compete in the second half of the series, but has already qualified for the Grand Final, moved due to COVID restrictions from early November in Argentina to the Canary Islands on 16 October.
Swiss ‘trail sisters’ Maude Mathys, Judith Wyder and Odile Spycher occupy the top three positions on the current GTWS rankings and will be aiming to replicate the performances of their mountain-biking compatriots, who recently made a clean sweep of the Tokyo Olympic medals in the mountain bike cross country race. Mathys and Wyder were the top two in the 2019 event and are favoured for a repeat performance on Saturday.
But standing in their way is leading Kenyan mountain racer, Lucy Murigi, who won the 2018 event in an excellent 2:57:54. The former World Mountain Running champion is a SZ regular and has what it takes to be on the finish podium. Another African looking for a high position is leading South African trail athlete, Toni McCann, debuting at the race and fresh from her impressive win in the Gruyere Trail Charmet 24km race in Switzerland two weeks ago.
Top Moroccan, Elhousine Elazzoui, returns to Golden Trail World Series action and will spearhead the African challenge after his impressive second place at Dolomyths. Elazzoui won the Swiss Alpine Marathon two weeks ago and is building his mountain strength by the week. “I have prepared enough and I am eagerly waiting for the race on Saturday, which will be a big battle!” the Moroccan said from his Swiss base in Lugano.
Strong-running Eritrean, Petro Mamu, returns to the scene of his excellent 2018 performance, when he placed third behind Jornet and British road marathoner, Robbie Simpson, while Cape Town trail athletes, Kane Reilly and Daniel Claassen, will also be in action, both using the race as preparation for their Ultra-trail Mont Blanc ‘CCC’ 100km later this month.
“I arrived in Switzerland ten days ago,” said Claassen from the race hub of Zinal. “The preparation has been going well but I have absolutely no expectations for the weekend, as it’s my first race in Europe and I’ve no idea what these guys are capable off. I just know that it will be an extremely fast race and it’s really going to hurt! For me it will just be a highlight to start on the same start-line as Killian Jornet.”
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