Within the 2024 Zegama-Aizkorri Marathon, each a race rookie and a race veteran ended up at the podium’s best step. Within the ladies’s race, Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) ruled from the midway level to take her first win within the match, and Kilian Jornet (Spain, lives in Norway) led from the beginning within the males’s race to take his eleventh win out of 12 begins.
Beginning at 9 a.m. native time on Sunday, Would possibly 26, the 42-kilometer race traversed rugged terrain throughout Basque Nation, Spain, with greater than 2,700 meters of hiking on technical terrain. It’s the 1/3 match within the Golden Path International Collection, following up on races in China and Japan again in April. The course climbs the 4 of the absolute best peaks in Basque Nation and is infamous for its opposed climate prerequisites. Fortuitously, this 12 months’s get started was once easiest, with minimum wind and no more dust on the right track than in some years.
Sylvia Nordskar on her method to her first win of the Zegama Marathon, all over the 2024 version. Photograph: Zegama Marathon/Roger Salanova
Within the ladies’s race, the highest 5 finishers from 2023 have been all again once more, with final 12 months’s winner Daniela Oemus (Germany) having a look to copy. Becoming a member of those 5 have been emerging celebrity and first-timer Lide Urrestarazu (Spain) and 2022 third-place finisher Sara Alonso (Spain). Basque Nation native Malen Osa was once additionally having a look to combine it up on the entrance of the sphere.
With Jornet lining up for his twelfth Zegama after 10 prior wins, together with a path file of three:36:40 set in 2022, it could were laborious to wager towards him. Then again, there have been a number of others having a look to take the identify, together with final 12 months’s winner Manuel Merrilas (Spain) and Jornet’s NNormal teammate Elhousine Elazzaoui (Morocco), who positioned 2nd final 12 months.
However within the phrases of Jornet, “Zegama is Zegama,” and anything else can occur on race day, so learn on for the total race record.
2024 Zegama Marathon Ladies’s Race
The ladies’s race was once set to be a thrilling one with such a lot of best ladies returning for any other cross on the path. The USA’s Dani Moreno took the lead from the road. At about 8 kilometers into the race, she was once joined via Switzerland’s Theres Leboeuf, who got here 1/3 on the first prevent of the Golden Path International Collection, the Kobe Path in Japan, and Sylvia Nordskar from Norway.
It was once extraordinarily tight within the first a part of the ladies’s race, with the highest 5, which incorporated Bailey Kowalczyk from the USA and Lide Urrestarazu of Spain, staying inside of a minute of one another.
Marta Martínez stepped forward upon her 8th position final 12 months to take 1/3 on the 2024 Zegama Marathon. Photograph: Zegama Marathon/Igor Quijano
Round 13 kilometers, Nordskar overtook Leboeuf for the lead and persisted to carry this place as much as the infamous Sancti Spiritu climb. In the back of them, Urrestarazu crept additional up the leaderboard with every passing kilometer, operating her manner into 2nd at Sancti Spiritu, two mins at the back of Nordskar and a minute forward of Marta Martínez of Spain.
Nordskar went from energy to energy on the entrance, expanding her lead over the remainder of the sphere while the battle for 2nd position persisted within the race’s 2nd part. After a relatively conservative get started, Basque Nation native Malen Osa began shifting up within the latter kilometers of the path. The teen completed fourth within the 2023 Golden Path International Collection and sought after to make her mark in her house race.
By way of 26 kilometers in, she’d labored her manner into 2nd, simply over 4 mins at the back of the chief. Martínez trailed her in 1/3, whilst Urrestarazu began to vanish in the second one part. After completing 18th on the Zegama Marathon in 2022 and fourth in 2023, Nordskar crossed the end line victorious in 4:29:12. Shut at the back of her, Osa held onto 2nd in 4:35:19, adopted simply 30 seconds later via Martínez in 4:35:39.
Leboeuf fought her as far back as fourth in 4:36:16, overtaking Urrestarazu, who completed in 4:37:20.
Malen Osa, who hails from Basque Nation, was once a fan favourite on the 2024 Zegama Marathon. Right here, she ascends the well-known Sancti Spiritu climb among the hundreds of enthusiasts amassed. Photograph: Zegama Marathon/Igor Quijano
2024 Zegama Marathon Ladies’s Effects
- Sylvia Nordskar (Norway) – 4:29:12
- Malen Osa (Spain) – 4:35:19
- Marta Martínez (Spain) – 4:35:39
- Theres Leboeuf (Switzerland) – 4:36:16
- Lide Urrestarazu (Spain) – 4:37:20
- Elisa Desco (Italy) – 4:40:28
- Daniela Oemus (Germany) – 4:41:21
- Rosa Lara (Spain) – 4:42:54
- Ida Robsahm (Norway) – 4:44:31
- Caitlin Fielder (New Zealand) – 4:46:02
[Editor’s Note: From 2010 to 2012, Elisa Desco served a two-year doping ban from the IAAF after she tested positive for EPO at the 2009 World Mountain Running Championships.]
The highest 5 ladies of the 2024 Zegama Marathon (l-to-r): 4. Theres Leboeuf, 2. Malen Osa, 1. Sylvia Nordskar, 3. Marta Martínez, and 5. Lide Urrestarazu. Photograph: Zegama Marathon/Roger Salanova
2024 Zegama Marathon Males’s Race
From the primary climb of the race, Spain’s Kilian Jornet (Spain, lives in Norway) l took the lead, having a look able to take his eleventh Zegama Marathon identify. Simply 8 kilometers in, he’d already created just about a minute hole over Kevin Kibet and Robert Pkemoi Matayango, each from Kenya. Jornet’s teammate, Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco, wasn’t a ways at the back of the highest 3.
Because the race persisted upward, Jornet driven to extend the distance between himself and the remainder of the sphere.
Kilian Jornet on his method to profitable the 2024 Zegama Marathon, his eleventh victory on the race. Photograph: Zegama Marathon/Igor Quijano
By way of the incline on the infamous Sancti Spiritu, the place the crowds didn’t disappoint, Jornet had a three-minute lead on Kibet, and it appeared as though he have been on tempo to overcome his personal path file of three:36:40, which he set in 2022. Pkemoi Matayango stayed shut in 1/3, with Elazzaoui trailing in fourth 20 kilometers into the race.
Then again, Kibet perceived to fight with the difficult terrain after Sancti Spiritu. Whilst he completed 1/3 at Sierre-Zinal in 2023, his path racing enjoy is slightly restricted. His fellow Kenyan Pkemoi Matayango additionally misplaced puts within the latter part of the path.
Poland’s Bartłomiej Przedwojewski and Elazzaoui used this technical, rocky path to battle their manner into the second one and 1/3 position, the place they might leapfrog with every different for the rest of the race. In the back of the highest 3, profiting from the fading Kenyans, Italy’s Luca Del Pero additionally labored his manner ahead within the standings.
Remaining 12 months’s winner, Manuel Merillas of Spain, began extra conservatively however slowly edged his manner towards the entrance finish of the crowd, the use of the steep technical terrain to his merit.
Bartłomiej Przedwojewski having a look recent after taking 2nd on the 2024 Zegama Marathon. Photograph: Zegama Marathon/Roger Salanova
Jornet driven within the ultimate 10 kilometers as a way to set any other new path file, however abdomen issues slowed him down towards the top. Nonetheless, he took an improbable win, crossing the road in 3:38:07. Elazzaoui completed 2nd in 3:46:16 and Przedwojewski in 1/3 with a time of three:46:54.
Del Pero stepped forward on his thirteenth position end on the Zegama Marathon final 12 months with fourth and a time of three:47:25, simply edging out Merillas, who got here house in 5th in 3:47:42.
2024 Zegama Marathon Males’s Effects
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- Kilian Jornet (Spain, lives in Norway) – 3:38:07
- Elhousine Elazzaoui (Morocco) – 3:46:16
- Bartłomiej Przedwojewski (Poland) – 3:46:54
- Luca Del Pero (Italy) – 3:47:25
- Manuel Merillas (Spain) – 3:47:42
- Robert Pkemoi Matayango (Kenya) – 3:50:02
- Marcin Kubica (Poland) – 3:53:24
- Alain Santamaría (Spain) – 3:54:11
- Loïc Robert (France) – 3:55:52
- Léonard Mitrica (Romania) – 3:56:28
The highest 5 males of the 2024 Zegama Marathon (l-to-r): 4. Luca Del Pero, 2. Elhousine Elazzaoui, 1. Kilian Jornet, 3. Bartłomiej Przedwojewski, and 5. Manuel Merillas (along with his canine Zar). Photograph: Zegama Marathon/Roger Salanova