Antonio Martinez of Spain and Canada’s Emma Cook-Clarke rise above the clouds and above the rest at Madeira Skyrace, the fourth race of the Skyrunner® World Series 2023.
The brand-new 45 kilometre Skyrace route, with 3,500 meters of elevation gain, put many of the worlds best skyrunners to the test in Santana, Madeira today, the 17th of June.
The breathtakingly beautiful and very diverse course visited the highest point of Madeira Island, Pico Ruivo at 1,861 meters with technical sections and stunning views across the Atlantic Ocean.
The current men’s overall ranking leader, Antonio Martinez of Spain (team Scarpa) stormed to victory, taking home his second winner’s bib of the season and, therefore, secures his place at the top of the leaderboard.
The Spaniard impressively climbed his way through the rankings from ninth place at the top of the first climb and four minutes behind the leader, to first place by the time he reached Santana, crossing the finish line six minutes ahead of Spain’s Zaid Ait Malek (team Jimbee Melon) in second. This start conservative start and strong finish strategy is something we have seen before from Martinez. Third place went to Miguel Arsenio of Portugal (team Sport HG) who finished seven minutes behind Martinez.
In the women’s race, Emma Cook-Clarke of Canada (team Arc’teryx) was miles ahead of the rest of the field after leading from the beginning and finishing with a winning time of 06h12’17” – almost 13 minutes ahead of the second female. This is another impressive performance after her second-place finish at Hochkönig Skyrace in Austria two weeks ago. Cook-Clarke comments:
“This was a beautiful but tough run. It was so hot and the terrain is very technical but I guess this is why we do it – to get tougher ourselves. There were a lot of strong women out there today and so it feels good to win.”
Oihana Azkorbebetia of Spain (team Merrell) followed in second place and Ainara Yurrebaso, also of Spain, (team Basque Selection) closed the female podium, 17 minutes behind Cook-Clarke.
The top 20 of Madeira Skyrace have gained points towards the overall ranking.
The next stage of the Skyrunner® World Series will be the Minotaur Skyrace in Canada on June 24th.
MEN TOP 5:
- Antonio Martinez Perez (ESP) Team Scarpa – 05h05’00”
- Zaid Ait Malek (ESP) Team Jimbee Melon – 05h11’13”
- Miguel Arsenio (POR) Team Sport HG – 05h12’15”
- Pol Rodriguez Salvador (ESP) – 05h12’58”
- Alejandro Forcades (ESP) Team Nnormal – 05h29’42”
WOMEN TOP 5:
- Emma Cook-Clarke (CAN) Team Arc’teryx – 06h12’17”
- Oihana Azkorbebetia (ESP) Team Merrell – 06h25’01”
- Ainara Yurrebaso (ESP) Team Basque Selection – 06h29’29”
- Rea Kolbl (USA) Team Dynafit – 06h43’58”
- Jessica Campbell (NZL) Team Scott Running – 07h02’34”
