Youth Skyrunning World Champs 2023 - Overall and Sky Race
Youth Skyrunning World Champs – Skyrace Sunday 6th August 2023
August 6 – SKY – 23 km long with 2,226m vertical climb
August 6 – SKY YOUTH A & B – 13 km long with 1,300m vertical climb
Age categories
The official 2023 Youth Skyrunning World Championships categories are four:
Youth A (15-16 years): born from January 1, 2007 to December 31, 2008
Youth B (17-18 years): born from January 1, 2005 to December 31, 2006
Youth C (19-20 years): born from January 1, 2003 to December 31, 2004
U23 (21-22-23 years): born from January 1, 2000 to December 31, 2002
The UK has a great history with Skyrunning and the UK fell racing scene is the perfect place for the youth runners to cut their teeth. Heading out to the EU champs allows them to rank themselves against other countries best runners.
With 18 runners on the team, the UK had a strong offering for 2023 and wow did they run hard and pulled in an awesome result of 5th Team overall, out of 30 countries.
UK Squad looking dapper in their Ron Hill team kit, designed by Harry Bolton [in the middle front] with Niki Rylance on the far left, our UK Youth Team manager. ©ISF
Ireland finished in 26th out of 30 countries, with only 3 runners competing they did an amazing job with the team going home with loads of energy to gain more support for the 2024 edition of the Youth Skyrunning World Champs.
The Irish Trio with Yann Valdez on the far right, Ireland’s team manager who is Swiss/Irish and could not compete this year due to injury. ©ISF
Even with the heavy downpours, thunderstorms and lightning on Friday night into Saturday morning, the trails remained unchanged, however the UK and Ireland squad would perform well downhill, as is the nature of the terrain the team trains on in the UK and Ireland.
Rowan Ashworth on his way to 9th in ‘Youth A’ and 19th overall in the Sky Youth A & B Race - 13.9km with 1300m vert ©ISF
Rowan Ashworth said of his experience in the Italian Apennine Mountains : “This was a really great event, having raced last year I knew this would be a really fun experience. This year the sky race was a solid favourite for me with a long climb and nice descent paired with great views and a 9th place finish.”
Friday’s thunderstorm had brought the temps down so better for the UK and Irish runners, however there was still quite a high level of humidity in the air.
The courses set were hard, with the VK being the start for both distances, Youth A & B doing a 13k route with 1300m of vertical and Youth C and U23 Age Cats taking on a classic skyrace distance with 21.6km and 2226m of vertical, both distances finished again with a full decent of the 1002m VK to the finish in Fonte Cerreto, in the valley below
The races for all age categories started early and at 07:30 the gun was fired for Youth A & B categories to start the ascent of the VK from Friday’s racing before reaching the cable car station to run new routes over the mountain plateaus and ridges that seem so reminiscent of Scotland, but with kinder weather.
Youth C and the U23 age Cats started over the next 30 minutes and over 200 young skyrunners were on the mountains racing hard in the warm, but breezy conditions.
Both routes contained ridge running, with the Youth C and U23’s getting some classic ‘roped’ ascents up technical ground and over ridge-lines, runners reporting the racing to be hard but super enjoyable.
Betty Bergstrand flying to a 6th place in the Youth C category on the longer Sky Race ©ISF
Chloe Rylance [13th Youth C] was reported saying; “ After surviving the VK for the 2nd time this weekend, I was super excited to get to the main section of the course. The top scramble was Proper Mountain running and suited me perfectly! I managed to claw back some time on this loop which left me in a pretty good position before starting the hellish switchback descent of the VK to the finish”
Sophie Rylance on her way to 18th in her Youth B age Cat ©ISF
Just missing the podium for the team, the UK Squads overall performance gained them a coveted 5th place. Solid performance’s and many top 10 finishes placed them very highly indeed and coming from the UK in a top temp of 16˚C it was a mild shock to the UK runners to step out into 36˚C+ in Rome before heading up to the events centre based at 1000m roughly and it still be in the low 30’s
Grant Finlay on his way to 20th position in Youth C ©ISF
Grant Finlay said; “I really enjoyed the events. Both races were great, the courses were a great mix of different types of sky running terrain with steep, technical, fast and exposed sections. The event was brilliantly organised and coordinated. Also big thanks to Niki she did a great job of coordinating things from the UK team side. Overall it was an amazing experience, I hope to be able to participate again next year and am thankful for the opportunity.”
Emily Field also had a cracking run and reported back; “ I actually loved the opportunity to race the VK again at the start of Sunday’s racing and after the heat wave Europe has ben experiencing, I was really worried the heat would get to me, but the drop in temps from Friday to Sunday suited me really well. The atmosphere was amazing and I felt very supported by the marshals and safety out on the course”
Irelands team were racing really well but Adam Byrne reported; “ I got a blister at 6km and the rest of the race was really tough to keep going, but with the final roped ascent, I found energy to push again and finish”
Adam Byrne [U23] having a tough race with blisters on their way ©ISF
We would like to thank Niki Rylance and Steve Ashworth for managing the UK Squad and Yann Valdez for managing the Irish Squad, plus massive thanks go to our kit sponsors for the UK, Ron Hill, whose Harry Bolton [one of the UK team] designed the kit as well and of course IMRA for kitting the Irish Team out in country colours.
All results can be viewed her: ………………… https://www.skyrunning.com/2023-youth-skyrunning-world-championships-ranking/
Reported by Charles Sproson