2008 IAU 24 Hour World Challenge champion Anne-Marie Vernet of France (© Nadeem Khan)
The 7th IAU 24 Hour World Challenge & European Championship will take place on 2-3 May 2009 in Bergamo, Italy. Three-time consecutive men’s champion Ryoichi Sekiya of Japan is absent from the race, ensuring a new men’s winner. Returning women’s champion from the 2007 IAU World Challenge, Anne-Marie Vernet of France, is back to defend her crown.
Bergamo has the honour of hosting the 7th IAU 24 hr World Challenge & European Championship. The race returns to Europe after a two-year absence. The city in Lombardy, located about 40km from Milan, has a population of 100,000.
The men’s race will be significant with the absence of three-time consecutive champion Sekiya. Gunning for the crown will be Fabien Hoblea of France and Japan’s Yuji Sakai, last year’s second and third place finishers respectively.
In 2008 we saw a close race between the top three female runners from France. All three – Vernet, Anne-Cecile Fontaine and Brigitte Bec - are back this year. The race also sees the return of Lyudmila Kalinina (RUS), winner of Women’s 2007 IAU 24hr World Challenge.
The opening ceremony for the World Challenge is on 1 May at 5:30pm. The race starts at 10am the following morning (2). This race also doubles as the IAU 24 Hr European Championships.
The course is on an 1133.945m loop that runs through Bergamo’s city centre. The course is relatively flat and is run mainly on asphalt.
In conjunction with the IAU World Challenge there will be a race for open athletes vying for the Italian Championship.
Based on 2007-2009 performances, the top runners in the Men’s field include:
- Fabien Hoblea (FRA) 267.074 km
- Yuji Sakai (JPN) 264.389 km
- Anatoly Kruglicov (RUS) 257.358 km
- Vladimir Bychkov (RUS) 257.327 km
- Mohamed Magroun (FRA) 257.018 km
Leading women -
- Anne-Marie Vernet (FRA) 239.685 km
- Anne-Cecile Fontaine (FRA) 239.252
- Lyudmila Kalinina (RUS) 236.848 km
- Connie Gardner (USA) 233.84 km
- Brigitte Bec (FRA) 233.137km
There will be live coverage of the races - updated hourly - on the IAU website here.
Nadeem Khan for the IAAF
