Swiss runner conquers Golden Trail Series race in Japan after Achilles surgery
Maude Mathys has bouned back to win the race in Kobe, Japan on Saturday after undergoing surgery in 2023
Photo by:
Colin Olivero/ @colinolivero
The first race of the season for the Golden Trail World Series took place in Kobe, Japan on Saturday, and the field was loaded with talent. Swiss runner Maude Mathys, the 2020 Golden Trail Championship winner and 2021 GTWS winner, took the win in the women’s race (2:52:08), after being off for most of 2023 recovering from Achilles surgery; Patrick Kipngeno of Kenya, last year’s GTWS overall runner-up, broke the tape on the men’s side, defying predictions that the course was too technical for him.
Sara Alonso of Spain took second in the women’s race (2:58:34), with Theres Leboeuf of Switzerland rounding out the podium (2:58:38). Kipngeno passed Switzerland’s Joey Hadorn, who ultimately finished second, on his way to break the tape; it was Hadorn’s first podium finish in a GTWS race. Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco finished third, after taking a hard fall on the third loop.
The win was especially sweet for Mathys, who was unsure of her fitness after her surgery last year; however she noted that the course was very technical, which prevented the other runners from going as fast as they would have liked.
“My strategy was to set off quite cautiously so I wouldn’t blow up too early, then gradually increase the pace in the uphill while trying not to lose too much in the downhill,” Mathys told media after the event. “I think I’m a terrible downhiller, but I can’t be as bad as all that, because no one caught up with me! Then I saw Joyce [Njeru, of Kenya, who finished fourth] in the third loop and I quickly caught up with her and then opened up a gap. I tried to stay focused right up to the finish line and I’m thrilled with this victory.”
Kipngeno was also a little surprised by his victory: “The competition was high-level today, and the race was very tough, but I’m really happy to have won,” Kipngeno told media after the race. “It wasn’t until kilometre 16 that I realized that victory was possible, because the downhills were very tough, and they were running very fast in the front. But I stuck to my strategy, and it worked!”
The GTWS is an eight-race series, where the top 30 men and women from the overall ranking, after the eighth race, will be invited to the Grand Final, to be held this year in the Swiss region of Ascona-Locarno. Saturday’s race in Kobe marked the first-ever Asian race in the GTWS, and featured a 21-kilometre course with 2,109 metres of vertical elevation in a “flower-race” format. (Racers ran four different loops that took them through the start/finish zone five times–so the course map resembled a flower.) Mathys was third on both the first and second loops, only moving into first on the third loop; similarly, Kipngeno was fourth on the first loop, third on the second and made his way to the front of the pack on the third loop.
Click here for full results.
The next race in the series is in Sichuan, China on April 27.
Click here to check out the entire 2023 season, complete with behind-the-scenes footage, in a YouTube series called “Chasing Dreams.”
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