world long distance mountain running challenge

She won Pikes Peak Marathon and Sierre Zinal, breaking many course records at iconic international races during her career. She won the World Cup three times, won the 2000 World Championships and finished second in 2003, leading Scotland's women's team to the gold medals. Coming from the world of hill and fell running (she won the British Fell Running Championships five times), she achieved great success in mountain running. One of the athletes with whom Moon enjoyed an epic tussle at the 2003 World Championships was Angela Mudge of Scotland. And secondly, she said: “I also loved the culture of the mountain runners, just like an extended family, and I felt energised in the mountain and villages of Europe.” After a third and fourth place in the World Mountain Running Championships she went on to win in 2001 and defended her title in 2003. The reasons? Firstly, a third at the 1997 World Championships, which she was persuaded to take part in after staying on in Europe for a week after the World Student Games. Melissa MoonĪt around the same time that Zatorka burst onto the scene, Melissa Moon, a track and cross-country athlete from New Zealand, was coming to the conclusion that mountain running might be the sport for her. As well as achieving success in the mountains, she also won many road races all over the world, from 5km to marathon. She also won iconic mountain races like Drei Zinnen, Challenge Stellina and Smarna Gora. In the World Championships she achieved a silver and three bronzes. There followed an amazing run of podium and top-10 finishes between 19, including European Championships golds in 19, and three World Cup wins. Izabela ZatorskaĪ few years after Guillot began her run of success, Poland’s Izabela Zatorska began one of her own.

She has had considerable success as a masters athlete since. This included four golds, three silvers and two bronze medals in the World Championships, as well as European gold, then she bookended those with another bronze in the European Championships in 2006. Isabelle Guillot of France won bronze in the European Mountain Running Championships in 1988 and then she proceeded to string together an incredibly consistent and lengthy set of impressive results. On International Women’s Day, the World Mountain Running Association takes a look at some of the women who have helped shape the sport.

World long distance mountain running challenge