Denisa Dragomir goes down in the history books as Romanian winner claims fifth title of the season and is therefore crowned the 2021 Skyrunner World Series Overall Ranking presented by Merrell champion together with Christian Mathys of Switzerland. Nadir Marguet returns to skyrunning and is drenched with champagne at the finish line as he claims his first victory of the year. It all happened this weekend at the Limone Skyrace Extreme.

Denisa Dragomir Dominates Limone Skyrace and the Entire 2021 Circuit

It’s 12:55 on Saturday the 30th of October and the entire town of Limone goes wild as they watch Denisa Dragomir (team Merrell) approach the finish line ribbon of Limone Skyrace Extreme. This will be the fifth victory of hers that we have witnessed this season. Dragomir still  looks as happy as she did the first. It was not an easy race for Dragomir, who was neck and neck with Italian runner Fabiola Conti for the entire first climb, but it was obvioulsy an extremely satisfying one.

With a time of 2h55’23”, Dragomir sets a new course record for the 23km course with 2,000m of vertical gain. She is followed by Swedish athlete Johanna Åström four minutes after who has overtaken Italy’s Fabiola Conti on the final descent. Conti completes the female podium, finishing just 25 seconds behind Åström. It has been a great season for all three women.

With 400 points in the overall ranking (500 in total but the overall ranking only takes into account the top four points) Dragomir was untouchable. Austrian newcomer Stephanie Kröll finished second with a total of 314 points which included two overall wins and Basque skyrunner Oihana Azkorbebetia (team Merrell) takes third with a total 290 points accumulated over the season.

“2021 was an incredibly good year for me. I achieved some of the best results of my career. After my two wins in the 2019 Skyrunner World Series, I began to believe that I could achieve my ultimate dream of winning the circuit. This was not the case in 2020 however and the year panned out to be a lot different than I had hoped for. I’m glad I managed to keep my motivation and continue training hard for 2021.”, comments the overall champion, Denisa Dragomir. “None of my wins have been easy.”, she continues, “Today was especially hard. But I was so focused on the task at hand that not winning was never an option. Of course I would like to come back to defend my title next year. The Skyrunner World Series is my number one circuit. I love the races and the people, so I can’t imagine taking part in another circuit instead.”

Nadir Maguet Thrills the Public

In the mens race, Nadir “Mago” Maguet (team La Sportiva) stopped the clock at 2h 23’03”. Although unable to beat the best time of Luka Kovacic (2h 21’23”) Maguet still managed to thrill the public and take an impressive win, crossing the finish line 6 minutes ahead of Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco in second place and Roberto Delorenzi of Switzerland (team Vibram) in third. Maguet, who held the lead for the entire race, was met with an extremely loud crowd and champagene shower on the banks of Limone.

Christian Mathys is Number One in the Overall Ranking

Although unable to attend the final event, with the highest number of points in the overall ranking, Swiss skyrunner Christian Mathys was announced as the male champion of the 2021 Skyrunner World Series Overall Ranking Presented by Merrell. With 370 points, including three wins at Livigno SkyMarathon, Kaiserkrone Skyrace and Comapedrosa Skyrace, he proved to be unbeatable. In second place was Italy’s Daniel Antonioli (team Scarpa) with 301 points and third place went to Riccardo Cherta of Spain (team Dynafit) with 258 points overall.

Mathys, the overall champion comments: “I’m incredibly happy with this overall victory. It is one of the biggest achievements of my career. I’m glad that I was able to accomplish it during my elite-years before having to get back to work again.”

Congratulations to all athletes and organisers on a successful season, especially given the circumstances. We now look forward to returning in 2022 with more epic skyrunning action.