2018 Mountain Racing World Cup

The 34th World Mountain Racing Championship was held on September 16, 2018 in the city of Canillo , Andorra . Participants competed in the discipline of mountain running "up." 8 sets of awards were played: four in individual and team championships (men, women, juniors and juniors up to 20 years old). Among juniors athletes born in 1999 and younger could perform.

2018 Mountain Racing World Cup
Host city	Canillo , Andorra
Member countries	38
Of the participants	303
Medals	eight
date	September 16, 2018
Stadium	Forn de canillo

The championship was held in the highlands called Forn de Canillo. The track was relatively fast for the declared terrain “up” and in the middle part had a long descent 100 meters down. The start of the men's and women's races was in Canillo (1515 meters above sea level), after 4.72 km the participants reached the village of El Forn (1941 meters above sea level), where juniors and juniors entered the struggle. At 9.2 km (4.8 km for juniors), the most difficult climb began at the Rib Shelter Eskorshad Mountain Shelter, which ended one kilometer before the finish. The final segment had a simple, almost flat topography and ended at the peak of the Peak del Mayans at an altitude of 2430 meters above sea level ^{[1] [2]} .

303 runners (106 men, 77 women, 64 juniors and 56 juniors) from 38 countries of the world went to the start. Each country could put up to 4 people in each of the races. The strongest teams in the team championship were determined by the sum of the places of the three best participants.

For the second year in a row, the main result of the championship was the complete dominance of runners from Uganda. In individual races, they won 8 of 12 medals (of which three were gold), adding to them three victories in the team championship. For the first time in the history of the tournament, gold medals went to representatives of only two countries (Kenya and Uganda), before that, the three countries in the very first draws were the lowest.

Among juniors, Risper Chebet defended the league title, Lisa Ed from Germany finished second. As it later turned out, she was closest to breaking African hegemony in Canillo: the German lagged behind the winner was 35 seconds.

In the junior race, the runners from Uganda occupied the entire podium. The 2017 champion Oscar Chelimo this time finished only third, passing two compatriots ahead. The youngest of them, 16-year-old Dan Chebet, won gold. The rest of the participants were far behind: Joseph Dugdale, who finished fourth, lost about three minutes to the trio from Uganda.

For the first time since 2004, Andrea Mayr was unable to win the world championship on the track with the “up” profile. 38-year-old runner from Austria, six times winning the world championships, went to the start in Andorra. This race was the only one where athletes from Uganda could not distinguish themselves - here athletes from another East African country, Kenya, took the leading positions. The current champion Lucy Murigi was the first to reach the village of El Forn (4.72 km after the start), having an advantage of 25 seconds over Mayr and compatriot Viola Djelagat . In the second half of the distance, Murigi increased the lead and defended her title. Just as quickly this segment was run by European champion Maude Mathis , thanks to which she was able to move from seventh to second. Mayr was unable to maintain the pace of the leaders and finished the race in sixth place.

For the fourth time in the last six years, all three prizes in men's competitions have been taken by athletes from Uganda. Robert Chemonges was already the sixth world champion from this country, while none of the previous ones could repeat his success. This happened in Canillo, where the 2017 winner Victor Kiplangat finished third. At the same time, Chemonges already became the first two years ago , but was disqualified due to the fact that Joel Ayeko , who did not participate in that race (which is a violation of the IAAF rules), ran next to him on the final straight. In Andorra, Ayeko was again next to Chemonges to the very end, but this time legally: in the finish line he let his friend go ahead and won the silver medal for the second year in a row ^[3] .