Canada’s Rémi Leroux has shot to 3rd place within the World Mountain Operating Affiliation World Cup standings after taking silver and bronze in races on the 2023 Smarna Gora in Slovenia over the weekend.
Leroux, from Bromont, Que., ran 11:24 for second place within the Smarna Gora’s kick-off occasion final Friday evening, a brief and sharp 1.85-kiliomtre race with 360 metres of elevation achieve within the mountains simply exterior the Slovenian capital of Ljubljana. Becoming a member of him on the rostrum had been winner Luka Kovacic (11:12) and fellow Slovenian Klemen Spanring (11:25).
On Saturday, Leroux ran 43:31 to complete third within the Smarna Gora 10K race, a course with 710m of ascent and 350m of descent that features an preliminary climb to the summit of Grmada on the 4-km mark, adopted by descent over 2 km earlier than a remaining climb that spirals across the mountain to achieve the summit end at Gostilna Ledinek Inn.
Leroux was the one runner to podium in each of this 12 months’s Smarna Gora races. Taking gold within the 10K was Italy’s Isacco Costa (43:13). Lengen Lolkurraru of Kenya completed second in 43:21.
In a post-race Instagram put up, Leroux wrote this 12 months’s Smarna Gora encapsulated what he enjoys about mountain working.
“Lower than a minute separated the highest 6 runners and that demonstrates one of many many issues I really like about mountain working: Despite the fact that the races are comparatively brief, so many issues occur throughout the race and you must be 100% targeted on a regular basis, as a result of a bit of distraction and never following a transfer may cause you to lose many positions on the end,” he wrote. “It was one other very cool week assembly runners from world wide and experiencing a brand new tradition in Slovenia.”
Leroux’s standout performances in Slovenia got here only one week after his second-place end within the 10.2-km Premiero Dolomiti Path race in northern Italy, the place he crossed the end line in 43:56. He was joined on the rostrum by Xavier Chevrier (43:22) and fellow Italian Henri Aymonod (43:58).
His outcomes from Slovenia have launched Leroux into third place within the World Cup standings with 152 factors, behind Kenyans Philemon Kiriago with 280 factors and Patrick Kipngeno with 230 factors.
The ultimate set of races on this 12 months’s World Cup sequence happen this weekend on Spain’s Gran Canaria Island. The motion begins Friday with the 6.6-km vertical uphill race, together with 947m of ascent, continues Saturday with a 35-km lengthy mountain race with 2,736m of ascent, and concludes Sunday with the 21-km traditional mountain race that includes 740m of ascent and 1,970 metres of descent.
