2019 World Mountain Running Championship - Argentina
Published Tue 19 Nov 2019
In a first for South America, the Argentinian resort town of Villa La Angostura hosted the 2019 World Mountain Running Championship. In another ‘first’ these championships combined both the classic (14km) and long (42km) distances into the one festival of mountain running.
A team of 13 Australians made their way to Argentina to compete with a number of the squad basing in Chile before making the trip across the Andes into Argentina.
Queenslanders Chace Eldridge, Baha’a Fayoumi and Elena Stephenson took part in the junior events over a modified 8km course due to rising waters at a river crossing. Eldridge crossed in 33rd with Fayoumi in 42nd in the Junior men’s, while Stephenson finished 31st in the Junior women’s.
After disappointment at the 2018 Championship in Andorra, Leo Peterson from NSW lead the Australian Open men home in the classic distance placing 41st in the 77 man field. In his first appearance in open ranks Will Atkinson, also from NSW, ran strongly for 47th while the ACT’s Michael Chapman rounded out the team in 55th position. Our men’s team placed 13th of the 17 complete teams.
Victorian Simone Brick recorded the best placing among the Australians with a 27th placing in a field of 61 women. This was the highest placing by an Australian woman at the Championship since 2006. Jasmine Sargeant from NSW was next in at position 36 with Audrey Hall (QLD) rounding out the scoring team in 48th place. Kate Seibold (VIC) placed 57th with the team placing 10th of 14 complete nations.
With no Australian Open men in the 42km event, the focus was on our three women Kellie Emmerson (VIC), Elizabeth Humphries (ACT) and Meagan Brown (QLD) to represent the green and gold. Covering a course that reached the snow line of the highest point atop Cerro Bayo, Emmerson crossed first for Australia in 35th position with Humphries just 6 minutes and 10 placings adrift. Having rolled an ankle at 9km, Brown showed true grit to complete the journey and place 65th among the 75 finishers with the team placing 11th out of 17 nations.
In 2020 the championship will move to Lanzarote in the Canary Islands and will once again feature up/down classic and long distance races.
