With start-to-finish dominance, Kenyan athletes Joyce Muthoni Njeru and Patrick Kipngeno took first position on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k.
The 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k came about on Sunday, June 23, and was once a part of the weekend of the Damaged Arrow Skyrace competition, together with a Vertical Kilometer, 11k, 18k, the Ironface Problem, and 46k races. After closing 12 months’s course was once minimize quick because of deficient climate stipulations, this 12 months, there was once a lot much less snow and a cloudless, heat morning — the level was once set for an exhilarating race.
The beginning of the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace. Picture: Scott Rokis Images
The race is 21.75 kilometers (13.5 miles) lengthy and has 1,433 meters (4,700 ft) of vertical acquire. It takes position within the Palisades Tahoe ski house, the place the mythical Western States 100 starts subsequent Saturday, and routes itself at the hotel’s extra technical paths.
This race was once the season opener for the 2024 International Mountain Operating Affiliation International Cup, as was once the Vertical Kilometer race, which came about two days prior.
Remaining 12 months’s winners of the ladies’s and males’s races, Allie McLaughlin and Eli Hemming, took section on this 12 months’s match, so the power will have been on them to retain their titles. In spite of everything, the Kenyan athletes reigned best. Plus, the drama and shut racing persevered to the end traces, particularly within the ladies’s race.
Learn on for the entire tale.
2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k Girls’s Race
The primary 3 miles of the race are the quickest and maximum runnable a part of the path, making it a snappy birth. Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya) was once first to the Snow King checkpoint at 4.6 miles in 40:23. She held a just-under-two-minute lead on Tabor Hemming, who handed the checkpoint in 42:03. Lower than one minute in the back of 2nd position was once closing 12 months’s winner Allie McLaughlin (43:11) in 0.33 adopted in a while by way of Jade Belzberg in fourth and Dani Moreno in 5th. There will have been a small hole on the entrance of the race between the chief and the remainder of the sector, however the pageant remained fierce between 2nd thru 5th puts and past.
Joyce Muthoni Njeru, 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k ladies’s champion. Picture: Scott Rokis Images
On a hard-earned descent from Washeau Top, runners drop 1,200 ft in 2.5 miles to Shirley Basin, passing Siberia (the second one checkpoint) on their approach at mile 7.8. The ladies’s race remained stable because the runners held their positions. Njeru higher her lead by way of every other minute (1:21:12) in opposition to Hemming (1:24:08), environment her up effectively for the race’s 2nd part. McLaughlin closed the space in 0.33 position (1:24:59) whilst the race remained tight, with Belzberg handiest 30 seconds again in fourth. Moreno (1:28:15) ran in 5th.
After descending into Shirley Basin, the runners subsequent climbed 550 ft again as much as checkpoint 3 on the Prime Camp help station at 10.5 miles. It was once right through the ascent that Belzberg began to make her assault. Njeru (1:44:50) and Hemming (1:47:22) remained in first and 2nd as they handed the checkpoint, however Belzberg overtook McLaughlin, taking up the third-place place in 1:48:15. Then again, the space remained tight with McLaughlin attaining Prime Camp at 1:48:53 and Moreno 3 mins in the back of at 1:52:00.
Jade Belzberg all smiles on an ascent. She would take 2nd on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Andy Wacker
It was once Joyce Muthoni Njeru who crossed the end line first at 2:11:52. Nevertheless it was once tight.
Jade Belzberg made up numerous time at the steep descent to complete in 2nd position, simply over 30 seconds in the back of Njeru in 2:12:29. It was once an out of this world race for the athlete who controlled to take a podium spot in the previous few miles of the course.
Tabor Hemming got here in the course of the end in 0.33 in 2:13:31, whilst closing 12 months’s winner, Allie McLaughlin, completed in 2:14:53 for fourth position. Dani Moreno maintained 5th position in 2:17:04. It was once an exhilarating finish for the ladies’s most sensible positions.
Tabor Hemming on her strategy to taking 0.33 on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Jonathan Wyatt
2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k Girls’s Effects
- Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya) – 2:11:52
- Jade Belzberg – 2:12:29
- Tabor Hemming – 2:13:31
- Allie McLaughlin – 2:14:53
- Dani Moreno – 2:17:04
- Rachel Tomajczyk – 2:21:11
- Sydney Petersen – 2:23:01
- Abby Lock – 2:24:42
- Sarah Carter – 2:26:29
- Karley Rempel – 2:30:38
The 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k ladies’s podium (left to proper): 3. Tabor Hemming, 1. Joyce Muthoni Njeru, and three. Jade Belzberg. Picture: Nancy Hobbs
2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k Males’s Race
The favourite for the 23k race was once closing 12 months’s winner and 2023 Mont Blanc Marathon runner-up, Eli Hemming — additionally the husband of ladies’s third-place finisher Tabor Hemming. Then again, it was once Kenyan athlete Patrick Kipngeno who took the lead into checkpoint one, environment a tone for the day. Kipngeno got here in at 32:49, one minute quicker than Hemming. He was once adopted in a while after by way of Kenyan athlete Philemon Ombogo Kiriago (34:15) and Taylor Stack, who remained shut in the back of in 0.33 and fourth. Simply 30 seconds later, Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau entered the primary checkpoint at 35:24, a variety of about 2.5 mins for the highest 5 males.
Patrick Kipngeno, 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k males’s champion. Picture: Scott Rokis Images
In the meantime, Kipngeno persevered to extend the space between himself (1:04:36) and Hemming (1:06:25) some 7.8 miles in at Siberia, the second one checkpoint. Located simply after the race’s best possible top, athletes face a difficult climb, scrambling on the most sensible, adopted by way of a steep descent. Subsequent to the checkpoint had been Kiriago, Stack, and Beaudoin-Rousseau.
There was once much less drama within the males’s race, with out a vital adjustments as Kipngeno controlled to carry onto his lead at the closing incline to the Prime Camp help station, passing the checkpoint at 1:23:24 and Hemming at 1:25:21, nonetheless taking a two-minute lead on closing 12 months’s champion, the similar hole as on the prior checkpoint. Some other two mins later, Kiriago crossed thru at 1:27:13, adopted by way of Stack (1:28:30) and Beaudoin-Rousseau (1:29:59).
It was once no marvel that Patrick Kipngeno took first position, crossing the end line in 1:45:37, adopted by way of Eli Hemming in 1:47:00 for 2nd position.
Eli Hemming on his strategy to taking 2nd on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Andy Wacker
It was once a super day for Kenyan athletes, as Philemon Ombogo Kiriago got here 0.33 at 1:50:23 to move in conjunction with the ladies’s and males’s win. Taylor Stack completed fourth at 1:51:12, and Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau 5th at 1:52:16.
Philemon Ombogo Kiriago running onerous on an uphill. He would take 0.33 on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Andy Wacker
2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k Males’s Effects
- Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya) – 1:45:37
- Eli Hemming – 1:47:00
- Philemon Ombogo Kiriago (Kenya) – 1:50:23
- Taylor Stack – 1:51:12
- Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau – 1:52:16
- Hawk Name – 1:54:04
- Andrew Douglas (U.Ok.) – 1:54:28
- Rémi Leroux (Canada) – 1:55:09
- Sam Hendry – 1:55:24
- Cade Michael – 1:55:30
The 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k males’s podium (left to proper): 3. Philemon Ombogo Kiriago, 1. Patrick Kipngeno, and a couple of. Eli Hemming. Picture: Nancy Hobbs