“Zegama is Zegama“The Basques, no doubt, mountain marathon The world’s most emblematic, crowded—thousands of cheering fans along the route—and desirable.

And it’s not just the natives of the beautiful town in the interior of the province guipuzcoabut it’s also obvious that there were more than 12,500 entries for slightly more than 200 entries out of a total of 500 participants who were lucky enough to run Zegama-Aizkorri.

Touching you is a lottery. let them fight men’s event registrations (3 hours, 36 minutes and 40 seconds, accomplished by Kilian Jornet, who else?) and feminine (4 hours, 16 minutes and 43 seconds, thanks to its excellent performance Nienke Brinkman), difficult but not impossible. But for Kilian now winning for the tenth time has become an extraordinary routine.

Kilian’s tenth victory with his new jersey

Catalan Kilian Jornet came to his fetish career with a formidable group of rivals where the group was the main favourite, but included the French, among others. Remy Bouetvery suitable manual merillavery young David Magnini and the local star, Aegean Aritz.

Yet Kilian did not give up, leader from the startpassing all checks except Holy Spiritin first place and at the key moment of the race, just after crowning Aizkorri’s pinnacle, he leaves an excellent Davide Magnini.

From then on, the Catalan mountain runner shifted into another gear, both with vague intent to win, although he looked back several times as he didn’t have it all by his side, both because of his Italian rival’s great performance and his aim. breaking the record for the test held by the Norwegians to date. Stieg Argenmund. He crossed Zegama’s packed finish line in a spectacular 3 hours, 36 minutes and 40 seconds, more than eight minutes faster than his 2017 record.

An unrivaled premiere for the Catalan runner’s new textile adventure Normalafter leaving his usual home, Solomon -after all, the main sponsor of Zegama-Aizkorri and the racetrack Golden Trace Series There couldn’t be a better promotional campaign than seeing Kilian fly over the peaks of Aratz, Andraitx and Aizkorri in sneakers.

Behind him, technical terrain expert and more adverse weather conditions, Manuel Merillas competed very smartly in race conditions that were not the race conditions he felt most comfortable with. He went from less to more, advancing those who dared to follow. suicidal From Sancti Spiritu to the finish, he did not stop advancing his opponents to gain a third position that should have tasted like a big victory.

Also highlight the great performance of the Kenyan runner Robert PkemboyWith a fifth final position showing African runners landing with the right foot in the world of mountain racing, performing excellently even in tests with tough technical sectors such as Zegama-Aizkorri.

Brinkman contributes to the test record, Sara Alonso “The one from Euskadi”

If the Kilian affair is as historic as ever, the Dutch Nienke Brinkman yes, it can be considered the big surprise of the day and one of the biggest milestones in the short history of ‘track running’.

He was on the list of runners who could become a sensation for his great marks on the asphalt ( rotterdam marathon In 2 hours 22 minutes), but his performance in the high mountains was a mystery as he was not an expert, as can be seen in the long-suffering hill that he made after crowning Aizkorri.

But what a big favourite, the Swiss Maude MathysHe could not do anything against the pressure from the Dutch runner who announced after the race that he had recently returned from an injury, and he eventually had to give up and landed in a well-deserved second position, which drastically reduced the race. The 2017 record, Si Nienke, destroyed the previous mark in more than 17 minutes, stopping the clock at the stratospheric 4 hours, 16 minutes and 43 seconds, the Swiss did this in more than eight seconds.

And to finish, great local joy: so young and smiling Sarah Alonso He completed a masterful performance in third place and again knocked the Basque stamp down at eight minutes – he was about to catch up with Maude Mathys at the end of the race. maie maiora. “I broke the Euskadi record,” said the Salomon runner, who saw part of a dream come true with many new episodes to write in the future: “It was amazing, it was a dream. I couldn’t.” I never imagined it this good”