Men’s defending champion Giorgio Calcaterra of Italy will bid to defend his title against a host of ultrarunners, including Japan’s Hideo Nojo (bottom right). Defending women’s champion Amy Sproston (bottom left) of US said the team event will be her focus.


By Mikhil Bhat/Doha

Most people would sweat at the thought of a marathon. How about running two marathons? And some more?
That is what some of the top ultra-runners from 39 countries will be doing today around Aspire Zone in the IAU 100km World Championships. The event, which will see more than 200 athletes run 20 laps around a 5km course, will kick off at 6pm and the last runner is expected to cross the finish line latest by 6am tomorrow.
However, most of the top runners would have been done long before dawn.
Italy’s Giorgio Calcaterra won the last edition of the event in 2012 in a time of 6h23’20”, while the women’s winner Amy Sproston of USA crossed the finish line after a 7h34’08” run.
“It is very difficult to repeat the same result of 2012 again,” three-time world champion Calcaterra said yesterday. “There are a lot of new and strong athletes now. I think I just want to do a good race, do my best.”
In terms of times, young Russian star Vasily Larkin with a time of 6h18’26” is right up there followed by Britain’s Steven Way (6h19’20). Sweden’s Jonas Buud (6h29’00”) has finish second thrice — 2009, 2010, 2012 — and would definitely be aiming to go one better. Japan’s Hideo Nojo (6h40’15”) completes the top five in the men’s field.
But none of the athletes expect to post blistering fast times today.
“There are a lot of curves which are very heavy on the legs,” Calcaterra said. “Also the surface is not so easy to run on. There is also the problem of the weather. So I don’t think the final time will be as fast.”
Nojo, however, is confident going into the race. “I am confident because of two reasons. This course is not great in terms of temperature because it is a bit higher but I have been training in higher temperatures before coming here. Near Tokyo, where I live, it was a little warmer this time than usual and so I had a good training. Also, I have been working on strengthening my performance in the last part of the race. I am targeting a time of 6h30m, try and beat my personal best,” the Japanese ultra-runner said, adding that ideal temperature to run in would be around 15 degrees Celsius.
Sproston said that she wants to focus on the team event. “To be honest it is a very strong field and I had a great day in 2012. There are 5-10 athletes out there who could win and some of them are probably bigger favourites than I am,” Sproston said.
“So I don’t think it is about defending the title. In the US, we are more interested in the team competition and it is always about getting together and going after the team goal. So my main priority is to help the team.”
Sproston couldn’t be bothered about the weather and course because “we all run on the same course in the same temperature”.
She, however, did add: “Most of us are running the 100km world championship after quite some time. So when we do, it would be nice to be at a course where you can go for your personal record. But a lot of us look forward to this event because it didn’t happen last year.”
Sproston will have competition from Italy’s Monica Carlin, who is just under a minute off the American’s 2012 winning effort at 7h35’05”, and, after having finished third twice and second once in the last five editions, would be gunning for the top title.
Others in the fray for the women’s title are Russia’s Irina Antrapova (7h36’01”), Britain’s Joasia Zakrzewski (7h41’06”) and Meghan Arbogast (7h41’52”) of USA.
In addition to winning the world championships, athletes and the top team will be vying for total prize money of $11,200, which has been posted by the Aspire Zone Foundation.





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