Previews09 Jun 2017


Hernando to defend world trail running title in Badia Prataglia

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Luis Alberto Hernando wins the World Trail-Running Championships in Geres (© iRunFar)

The 2017 Trail World Championships takes place in Badia Prataglia, Italy on June 10th. The event is being run over a 50km course and will see 291 athletes representing 36 countries.

The championship event is taking place in the National Park of Foreste Casentinesi, located in the central Appennines, with the distinction of being one of the oldest forests in Europe.  The untouched Sasso Fratino forest has also been nominated to become a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Men's race is quite competitive with the top five runners from last year's Trail World Championships held in Geres, Portugal all in the field. Current world champion, Luis Alberto Hernando of Spain is once again one of the favourites. Nicolas Martin, silver medallist in the event last year, leads a very strong French team who are also top contenders to take home the team title.

French teammates Sylvain Court and Benoit Cori will be hoping to get on the podium. Marco de Gasperi of Italy, David Roche of the USA and Portugal’s Tiago Aires will try to have a strong race to make the championship podium as well and in turn help their respective teams to podium medals.

In the women's race, Caroline Chaverot of France will not be returning to defend her title. Nevertheless, the field is indeed quite deep again this year. Spain’s Azara Garcia will try and repeat her amazing performance in Geres where she finished second. Dutchwoman Ragna Debats will also try to replicate her run from last year and move up the podium from her third place finish.

Nathalie Mauclair will be leading a very strong French team and hoping for a podium finish. Megan Roche of the USA, Swiss Kathrin Gotz, Croatia’s Nikolina Sustic and Jo Meek of Great Britain will all be looking at strong performances to lead their respective teams to the very coveted team podium spots as well.

This is the second edition of the cooperation between IAU-ITRA with the two bodies dividing the organizational aspects of conducting the championships.

Nadeem Khan (organisers) for the IAAF

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