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The 2022 World Mountain Operating Affiliation World Cup season hit the midway level, with its sixth race, and the Golden Trails World Sequence progressed too, with its fourth collection occasion, on the 2022 Sierre-Zinal.
Run on storied trails within the Swiss excessive nation annually since 1974, the ferocious 31-kilometer (19.2 miles) course constantly attracts the world’s greatest mountain runners. The stacked area runs via the Swiss Canton (learn: wine nation area) of Valais, between the mountain villages of Sierre and Zinal. The compelling course kicks off on a steep climb, then finishes on a careening downhill. The course positive aspects 2,200 meters (7,200 ft) and loses 1,100 meters (3,600 ft).
Roll name at Sierre-Zinal usually reads like an all-star lineup: Jairo Correa, Anna Pichrtova, Sally Goldsmith, and Ricardo Mejía have highlighted tickets that usually brim with world champion mountain runners, Olympians, and world file holders.
Right now’s 2022 entry was no completely different: Maude Mathys (Switzerland) returned to vie for her fourth straight Sierre-Zinal win, whereas Kilian Jornet (Spain, lives in Norway) was on the lookout for his tenth title in Valais.
However when the gun sounded at 11 a.m. native time on on August 13, 2022, two younger Kenyans operating their first Sierre-Zinals — Esther Chesang and Mark Kangogo — ever rose to fulfill the problem. Right here’s how the race shook out.
2022 Sierre-Zinal Ladies’s Race
Mathys could have received the final three ladies’s Sierre-Zinal entries in a row, however that didn’t impress the mountain operating newcomer who took the sector.
Kenya’s Esther Chesang left each lady besides Mathys within the mud, posting a 2:52:01 to win. She broke out quick however quickly Mathys hounded her. The pair traded quickest splits all through the center of the race, however Mathys couldn’t set up a lead. Regardless of flying via the descent due to her technical prowess, Mathys completed simply 30 seconds behind the 27-year-old Chesang. At occasions, Mathys bought shut sufficient to see the Kenyan had she damaged her focus on the uneven path.
Esther Chesang of Kenya is the 2022 Sierre-Zinal champion. Picture: Marco Gulberti/Corsa in Montagna
Kenyan Philiares Kisang, the one lady to beat her countrywoman Joyce Njeru in every other World Cup race this 12 months, took third in 2:58:00. She ran very intently with Mathys early, checking in simply three seconds behind the Swiss runner on the first checkpoint of Ponchette at 58:17.
Kenya’s Philiaries Kisang on her approach to taking third on the 2022 Sierre-Zinal. Picture: Golden Path Sequence | Sierre-Zinal | Philipp Reiter
Njeru, in the meantime, posted a disappointing DNF. The remainder of the sector completed minutes behind the entrance three.
[In 2015, Mathys received a warning without suspension from the Disciplinary Chamber for Doping Cases of Swiss Olympic for two positive tests for clomifene (previously clomiphene) after it was determined that she was mistakenly taking the drug without first obtaining a World Anti-Doping Agency Therapeutic Use Exemption.]
2022 Sierre-Zinal Ladies’s Outcomes
- Esther Chesang (Kenya) — 2:52:01
- Maude Mathys (Switzerland) — 2:52:32
- Philiares Kisang (Kenya) — 2:58:00
- Teresiah Omosa (Kenya) — 3:01:13
- Sarah McCormack (Eire) — 3:04:12
- Bailey Kowalczyk (USA) — 3:04:48
- Lucy Murigi (Kenya) — 3:06:38
- Núria Gil (Spain) — 3:07:59
- Sarah Alonso (Spain) — 3:08:12
- Tabor Hemming (USA) — 3:08:58
Bailey Kowalczyk took sixth place on the 2022 Sierre-Zinal and was the highest American. Picture: Golden Path Sequence | Sierre-Zinal | Philipp Reiter
2022 Sierre-Zinal Males’s Race
Kenyan-born Mark Kangogo broke the tape first on the lads’s aspect, ending in 2:27:31. The 33-year-old got here into the race recent off a breaking a course file on the final World Cup tour cease in Thyon-Dixence, additionally in Switzerland, simply final weekend, and he simply missed turning the identical trick at Sierre-Zinal: Jornet’s 2019 mark is just below two minutes sooner.
Spain’s Andreu Blanes completed a distant second at 2:29:19 however went down heroically: nobody got here near matching his tempo on the again finish of the course as he doggedly gained locations. Additionally remarkably, Sierre-Zinal was solely his second World Cup race this season; at Thyon-Dixence, he took fourth.
Spanish orienteer Andreu Blanes was thrilled with second place on the 2022 Sierre-Zinal. Picture: Golden Path Sequence | Sierre-Zinal | Jordi Saragossa
And for the primary time this 12 months, Kangogo’s countryman Patrick Kipngeno completed someplace aside from first place in a World Cup race. He’d received all 5 earlier occasions this season, some resoundingly. Kipngeno slated a decent third place however pale late. Kangogo broke free from him after the uphills eased, then Blanes blistered previous him on the downhills.
Eritrean Petro Mamu nipped Jornet within the end chute and the pair completed fourth and fifth, only a couple hundredths of a second aside.
2022 Sierre-Zinal Males’s Outcomes
- Mark Kangogo (Kenya) — 2:27:31
- Andreu Blanes (Spain) — 2:29:19
- Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya) — 2:29:35
- Petro Mamu (Eritrea) — 2:30:18
- Kilian Jornet (Spain, lives in Norway) — 2:30:19
- Philemon Kiriago (Kenya) — 2:30:47
- Robert Pkemboi (Kenya) — 2:31:32
- Daniel Osanz (Spain) — 2:34:03
- Rémi Bonnet (Switzerland) — 2:34:37
- Robbie Simpson (U.Ok.) — 2:34:41
Kilian Jornet took fifth on the 2022 Sierre-Zinal, which was his thirteenth time racing the long-lasting occasion. Picture: Golden Path Sequence | Sierre-Zinal | Philipp Reiter
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