On the 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships in Taipei, Miho Nakata (Japan) set a new girls’s world report and Aleksandr Sorokin (Lithuania) repeated his win from 2019. Nakata coated a distance of 167.996 miles (270.363 kilometers) and Sorokin ran 187.530 miles (301.800 kilometers).
This yr’s race, held on a 1.24-mile (2 kilometers) loop, came about on Friday and Saturday, December 1 and a couple of, and kicked off at 10 a.m. native time on Friday.
The IAU 24-Hour World Championships are one of many largest occasions in ultrarunning and haven’t been held since 2019 on account of COVID-19 restrictions. Not like many different races, athletes will not be solely competing as people however are additionally working to attain factors as a group for his or her nation’s group rankings.
Within the girls’s race, expectations have been excessive for the final version’s winner and 24-hour report holder Camille Herron (United States), however ultimately it was Nakata who stole the present and broke Herron’s world report by a super-slim margin of 807 ft (246 meters), what quantities to a little bit over half a lap of a observe.
Within the males’s race, as predicted by many, Sorokin emerged as champion after creating a big hole between himself and the remainder of the sphere. Whereas Sorokin was aiming to additionally set a world report, he wasn’t in a position to keep the requisite tempo within the final 5 or so hours, although he nonetheless completed first by a large margin.
We dive deeper into the race beneath.
Japan’s Miho Nakata celebrates after setting a brand new girls’s 24-hour world report on the 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships in Taipei on December 1 and a couple of. Photograph: Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners
2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships Girls’s Race
As anticipated, the highest athletes remained shut to at least one one other within the early couple hours of the race, after which issues started to string out. By some 5 hours in, Herron, the 2019 champion and world-record holder, sat in third place, two minutes again from the lead, whereas eventual champion Miho Nakata (Japan) was already main.
On the midway level, the ladies’s podium positions have been composed of Nakata, Herron, and Line Caliskaner (Norway). Some 16 hours in, Nakata continued to construct her lead, however second and third locations shuffled, with Carmen Maria Perez (Spain) and Noora Honkala (Finland) now in these spots.
One of many largest shocks of the ladies’s race got here when Herron withdrew at about 88 miles (142k), just below 12 hours into the occasion. Solely 9 weeks prior, Herron gained and broke the course report on the Spartathlon in Greece and mentioned on social media after withdrawing that she didn’t really feel totally recovered from that effort.
Change got here once more on the 21-hour mark behind chief Nakata, the place Olena Shevchenko (Ukraine) had now moved as much as second place and Perez down to 3rd place.
Because the race progressed, all eyes have been on Nakata, who was on observe for breaking the world report, however the query was if she’d have the ability to maintain tempo via the end. She wanted each final second of these 24 hours to get the job completed, surpassing the prior world report by a brief distance. Learn extra about Nakata’s world report in our information article.
Shevchenko completed second with greater than 157 miles (254k) and Patrycja Bereznowska (Poland) moved up late to spherical out the ladies’s podium. She completed with greater than 154 miles (248.8k).
2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships Girls’s Race Outcomes
[Editor’s Note: These results are provisional, and we’ll update them with complete, full distances once the results are finalized.]
- Miho Nakata (Japan) – 167.996 miles (270.363k)
- Olena Shevchenko (Ukraine) – 158.116 miles (254.463k)
- Patrycja Bereznowska (Poland) – 155.058 miles (249.541k)
- Katja Lykke Tonstad (Denmark) – 154 miles (248k)
- Stine Rex (Denmark) – 152 miles (245.8k)
- Guler-Cionca Mara-Alexandra (Romania) – 151 miles (243.8k)
- Aleksandra Niwińska (Poland) – 150 miles (242.8k)
- Carmen Maria Perez (Spain) – 149 miles (240.8k)
- Petra Pastorová (Czech Republic) – 149 miles (240k)
- Alison Allen (United States) – 147 miles (238k)
Within the girls’s group race, Poland gained, Japan took second, and the Czech Republic was third,
2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships Males’s Race
Final yr’s winner and present 24-hour world-record holder Aleksandr Sorokin (Lithuania) was the heavy favourite, however did exit as aggressively because the early frontrunners. It was nearly 6 hours earlier than Sorokin took the lead, and on the 12-hour mark, he was simply in need of his world report tempo.
While Sorokin elevated his hole on the sphere to 7.4 miles (12k) on the 16-hour mark, Fotios Zisimopoulos (Greece) led Andrii Tkachuk (Ukraine) in a nonetheless shut race for second and third place. Apparently, whereas the ladies’s race for the rostrum shifted quite a few instances, this is able to be the boys’s final podium.
With 5 hours left to race, the world report was out of Sorokin’s attain, however he was loads robust sufficient to take care of that giant hole.
With 4 hours left to race, Francisco Mariano Martinez (Spain) sat at 150.3 miles (242k) in fourth place, difficult for the rostrum.
After 24 hours, Sorokin completed with 187.530 miles (301.800k), effectively off his earlier world report of 198.598 miles (319.614k). Zisimopoulos completed second with about 181 miles (292k) and Tkachuk completed third with about 176 miles (284k).
Lithuania’s Aleksandr Sorokin on his option to profitable the 2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships. Photograph: Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners
2023 IAU 24-Hour World Championships Males’s Race Outcomes
[Editor’s Note: These results are provisional, and we’ll update them with complete, full distances once the results are finalized.]
- Aleksandr Sorokin (Lithuania) – 187.524 miles (301.790k)
- Fotios Zisimopoulos (Greece) – 181.598 miles (292.254k)
- Andrii Tkachuk (Ukraine) – 176.805 miles (284.540k)
- Francisco Mariano Martinez (Spain) – 175 miles (282k)
- Mihal Sulja (Serbia) – 165 miles (266k)
- Andrzej Piotrowski (Poland) – 165 miles (265.8k)
- Videtič Luka (Slovenia) – 164 miles (264.8k)
- Paul Musegaas (The Netherlands) – 163 miles (263.8k)
- Valdenir Cordeiro (Brazil) – 163 miles (262.8k)
- Daniel Hawkins (Nice Britain) – 162 miles (260.8k)
Within the males’s group race, Lithuania took high honors, adopted by Poland and Nice Britain in second and third
