2024 Skyrunner® UK & Ireland Series finale full of surprises after Mourne Skyline!
A jubilant Caleb Nonhebel secures race victory and becomes the 2024 Overall Series joint-champion at Mourne Skyline on Saturday © Evan Davies
This weekend, SkyRun the Mournes in Newcastle, Northern Ireland was the last chance for runners to score points in the 2024 Skyrunner® UK & Ireland Series, with a huge £1,000 up for grabs for the series champions! The Mourne Skyline was also to be the deciding race in the inaugural Irish Skyrunning Championships, following the Seven Sisters Skychallenge 30k last month. While the women’s overall series had been concluded early (with another win for Victoria Thompson at Seven Sisters Skychallenge 30k), the men’s overall series win was still to play for.
First held in 2014, this Saturday the classic Mourne Skyline race was resurrected by new organisers Apex Running (news item HERE) for its decennial edition, following a 2-year hiatus and complete with a stacked field of elites. This classic 35km/2,700m+ route links ten summits via technical and rocky trails, at times handrailing the impressive Mourne Wall. Runners take the Brandy Pad trail to Hare’s Gap before climbing to Slieve Bearnagh, followed by Slieve Meelmore. Next, a descent to the aid station at Fofanny Dam follows, before a short road section gave access to the trail up Slieve Loughshannagh. From here the race travels eastwards, culminating in the descent of Slieve Commedagh and subsequent brutal climb up Slieve Donard (the tallest summit in Northern Ireland), before runners return to Donard Park via one long quad-busting descent to finish. For a reminder of the full route, see our Strava account HERE.
The extraordinary Mourne Wall is a striking feature along this course © Sam Davis
There were plenty of surprises in store for competitors this weekend but one of them was not the infamous Mournes weather! Cold, wet and windy at the start, runners faced intermittent low visibility, passing in and out of cloud throughout the course. Thankfully it was an improving forecast and many were gratefully rewarded with clearing blue skies and expansive views over rolling fells, wide reservoirs and striking tors during the latter part of the day.
The biggest and best surprise of the weekend was clearly visible on the face of U23 series Champion Caleb Nonhebel, who surpassed his own expectations this weekend by winning the men’s race outright in 4:01:48, ahead of accomplished Irish elite Enda Cloake. Aged just 19 and from the Isle of Mull in Scotland, by his own admission he came into this race to “secure second or third” but abandoned his own strategy and “ran flat out” to take not only first place in this race, but also become joint overall 2024 Skyrunner® UK & Ireland Series champion along with Enda Cloake. Both runners tie at 1300 points total, since only an athlete’s best three race results count to their final standing. View the finalised Overall Series rankings HERE.
Surprise and unadulterated joy were writ large on Nonhebel’s face as he crossed the finish line with a 5-minute lead on Cloake (header image). This race was the Scottish athlete’s first time in Northern Ireland and remarkably only his 12th race since he was selected to join the Salomon Team following his win at the Salomon Ring of Steall 2022 (his first SkyRace).
Top 3 men (left to right): Enda Cloake, Caleb Nonhebel and Craig Lowe © Evan Davies
Another surprise for many, was just how close and exciting the competition was at the front of the men’s race! Despite Cloake leading the charge from Donard Park, both Nonhebel and third place finisher Craig Lowe were all within a minute of one another by the time they reached Fofanny Dam. Not long after, Nonhebel and Cloake began to break away — but the leading pair continued to race neck-and neck! As they approached the penultimate summit of Slieve Commedagh, there was only 3 seconds between them! Nonhebel, feeling ‘the fittest he’s ever been,’ found something extra on the final push, and reached both the summit of Slieve Donard and the finish line with time to spare. Cloake’s second-place finish was still a win however, as he was crowned Irish Champion (info HERE), having accrued the most points across the Seven Sisters Skychallenge 30k and Mourne Skyline races.
Inaugural Irish Skyrunning Champion, Enda Cloake © Enda Cloake
“The Irish Championships are great for the local scene, bringing an international feel to local races – especially when there’s such a great turnout! It helps promote skyrunning and will ideally encourage even more people into the sport” says Cloake.
Behind the front two runners, Lowe was pushing hard to shake Polish athlete Mikolaj Klimczak. Reaching the penultimate summit checkpoint together, Lowe delivered a superb finish, clawing back a 5-minute lead before crossing the line ahead of Klimczak to complete the men’s podium. This third-place finish secured him a third position overall in the 2024 Skyrunner UK & Ireland Series, having been one of the most consistent runners of the season, with four finishes in this year’s series.
“What a cracking course!” exclaimed Lowe at the finish. “The weather was actually better than I expected and the course was more technical than I expected too! I was thinking it would be mostly boggy but there was actually plenty of drier, grippy ridge-running – I was pleasantly surprised!”
First male V40-44 was Lee O’Boyle (8th overall), and first V45-49 was Denis Burdakov (13th overall). In the V50-54 age cat Conor Savage came in first (14th overall) and Gerry Kingston came in first V55+ (27th overall).
Competitors were rewarded with sunshine and clearing skies by the afternoon © Evan Davies
The women’s race also delivered something of a surprise for first place finisher Isobel Oakes. Although Oakes is clearly a force to be reckoned with (previous Seven Sisters Skyline 55k winner and Irish elite in the EA Off-Road Running Championships 2022), the Mourne Skyline was her first race of 2024! Oakes has taken a break from running over the summer to prioritise work and studying, so was relying on a ‘quick build up’ of training for this event and was delighted that her endurance came back so quickly. Oakes will target UTS in 2025 and described the new Mourne Skyline as a ‘fantastic race.’ “It’s a tough route but there’s nothing else like it in Ireland. It’s really varied and it just feels like you’re constantly going up!” she says.
Leading ladies (left to right): Kasia Osipowicz, Isobel Oakes and Kerri Munn-Bookless © Evan Davies
The leading ladies in the Mourne Skyline paced their race evenly and all held their positions from start to finish. In second place (and first V40-44) was experienced Polish athlete Kasia Osipowicz. Going from strength-to-strength in this series, Osipowicz excels over the really technical terrain. “It was all a bit too runnable for me and was similar to Peak District trails” she observed, but thanks to a consistent season of running, including victory at the St. Sunday Mountain Race, finishes in 3rd overall in the 2024 Series.
The women’s podium was completed by a surprise performance from Kerri Munn-Bookless (V40-44); a newcomer to the skyrunning community from Northern Ireland, who has her origins in road running. Perhaps we will see more podium performances from Munn-Bookless in 2025, now that she has whet her appetite for skyrunning in the Mournes!
In the Vet age categories, first female V45-59 to cross the line was Mairead Okeeffe and first V50-54 was Nicola Macintrye, who finished as 15th in the female race. In the V55+ age category, Catriona Shatwell was first to cross the line. It was also great to see Valeriia Miroshnichenko from Ukraine representing the youth of skyrunning and take first female U23.
Kasia Ospiowicz happy with yet another podium finish © Evan Davies
What Next?
The top 20 M/F overall finishers in this race have now received series points with SkyRun the Mournes being the finale in the Skyrunner® UK & Ireland Series, over on the Series Rankings page HERE, finalised Overall Series, SkyUltra® Series and Irish Championships rankings have now all been updated. Please check back again later this week for updated Age Cat. Series rankings too.
Later this week, new Race Director for this event Michael Jones (also the Managing Director for Skyrunning UK) will release his report from the event over on the Apex Running website, so look out for that too! And please keep an eye out for his year in review article, ahead of announcement of the 2025 series arriving next month!
Varied terrain and impressive scenery make this race an enduring classic © Sam Davis
And that’s a wrap for the 2024 Skyrunner® UK & Ireland Series… See you next year! © Evan Davies
