For the primary time, Spain will host the World Mountain and Path Working Championships (WMTRC) — two years from now.

One in all mountain operating and path operating’s largest occasions will happen in Aragón, Spain, in September 2025, bringing collectively 1,700 athletes from 70 nations. With organizers anticipating an financial return of about 30 million Euros, it represents a giant win for this mountainous neighborhood in northeastern Spain.

“This occasion will showcase the breathtaking fantastic thing about the Pyrenees whereas offering a platform for athletes to show their expertise and compete on the highest stage,” the World Mountain Working Affiliation (WMRA) mentioned in a information launch.

As soon as this 12 months’s championships conclude in Tyrol, Austria, the torch might be figuratively handed to Spain in 2025. It should embrace 5 races, in addition to a pageant that can final all summer time “to advertise the mountain vary,” the WMRA wrote.

Occasion companions vary from the Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners (IAU), the Worldwide Path Working Affiliation (ITRA), the WMRA, and World Athletics.

“We’re excited that the third WMTRC will happen in Canfranc, Spain, in 2025 within the lovely Pyrenees — a paradise for mountain and path operating,” mentioned ITRA President Janet Ng, IAU President Nadeem Khan, and WMRA President Tomo Šarf in a joint assertion.

Why The Pyrenees?

The brand new format of bringing all of the mountain operating and path operating world championships collectively was launched in 2021. It now occurs each different 12 months. These mixed races began with Chiang Mai, Thailand, and proceed this 12 months in Austria, earlier than arriving in Spain in 2025.

Aragón gained the proper to host the championships by proving its expertise efficiently dealing with different massive sporting occasions prior to now. These embrace Canfranc-Canfranc, a well-known mountain operating occasion with 16 editions of historical past.

Many native governments and organizations participated in Spain’s bid to host the occasion. They embrace the Authorities of Aragón, the Canfranc City Council, the Huesca Provincial Council, the Larger Sports activities Council, and the Royal Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA).

Canfranc: A Confirmed Working Area

The Canfranc-Canfranc race has been a pioneer amongst mountain races world wide, the WMRA mentioned. That’s not simply due to its excessive requirements in financing and guidelines, but additionally World Anti-Doping Affiliation controls, the identical used at different world championships occasions and the Olympics.

It takes place in — you guessed it — Canfranc, a municipality within the Aragón Valley, and it’s not the one occasion to characteristic amid the realm’s lovely mountain landscapes. The WMRA World Cup landed for the primary time in Canfranc in 2021 and returned the next 12 months.

This 12 months, the realm will as soon as once more host two occasions within the WMRA World Cup, with uphill and traditional mountain operating races. And in 2024, Canfranc-Canfranc will host the World Masters Mountain Working Championships, a gown rehearsal for the 2025 WMTRC.

However First, The 2023 World Mountain and Path Working Championships in Austria

The announcement of the 2025 WMTRC in Spain instantly precedes the 2023 version, which takes place beginning on June 6 in Innsbruck, Austria.

iRunFar is shortly en path to the occasion and might be reporting on website all week. Keep tuned!