Calamorro Skyrace, the second stop of the Merrell Skyrunner® World Series, promises a technical and explosive race this Saturday the 6th of April. The world’s best skyrunners gear up to take things to the next level in order to take home bonus prize money for breaking the male and female records.
This Saturday, April 6, over 500 skyrunners will descend on Benálmadena, in the province of Málaga, for Calamorro Skyrace, the second stop of the Merrell Skyrunner® World Series which will be broadcasted live around the world.
The Skyrace course covers 27.5 km with 2,270 meters of elevation gain, and stands out for being a short and explosive race, offering no opportunities to rest and reduce the heart rate. With a constant gradient and few flat sections, athletes will encounter extremely technical and rocky descents. The climb beings directly from the start where skyrunners will have to face the first ascent to the summit of Mount Calamorro (731 meters) in a stretch of 3.76 km with 650 meters of elevation gain.
A historical race
The history of the Calamorro Skyrace, organised by the Grupo Alpino Benalmádena and with the collaboration of the Benalmádena City Council, the Diputación de Málaga and the Junta de Andalucía, has been evolving since its first edition in 2008. It is one of the pioneering races held in this community during the early days of mountain races.
Since the beginning, the organisation sought the best course options offered to the Sierra de Benalmádena with its virtually unknown network of trails, with the aim of promoting the area through a course that showed the scenic and environmental richness of the municipality of Benalmádena.
In 2019 the current route was established, which outlines and combines the characteristics of a technical, demanding skyrace. In its sixteenth edition, and for the second consecutive year, the Calamorro SkyRace is part of the Merrell Skyrunner® World Series circuit.
Elite runners
The second race of the MSWS calendar has attracted a large list of elite runners who will be battling it out for the prize money bonus for the new male and female records. The current records are:
Antonio Martínez – 02:39:01 (2023)
Sara Alonso – 03:00:08 (2022)
Among the elite athletes who have confirmed their presence in Calamorro SkyRace are the winner of the last edition, and 2023 World Series Champion, Antonio Martínez (Asics), as well as Spaniards Alain Santamaria (Salomon), Alex García (Brooks Running) and Dimas Pereira (Asics), the French Frederic Trandchand (Scott Running), the Swiss Roberto Delorenzi (Brooks Running) winner of the previous race, Acantilados del Norte, and the Slovakian Peter Frano (Scarpa), among others.
In the women’s category there is also a high level in the list of elite runners, with the presence of the brand new winner in Acantilados, Lide Urrestarazu (Euskal Selekzioa), in addition to Júlia Font (Brooks Running), Oihana Kortazar (Salomon), Norwegian Eli Anne Dvergsadal (Dynafit), Holly Page (team Adidas Terrex) of Great Britain, Ikram Rharsalla (Millet), third in the 2023 edition, Naiara Irigoyen (A4XKM), and Catalan runners Georgina Gabarró and Aina Cusí (Merrell).
In addition, Calamorro SkyRace will also open the 2024 U23 Esteban Olivero Trophy circuit, with young runners of the highest level competing to demonstrate that the future of skyrunning is assured.
The organization foresees a great race
Race director, Rogelio Macías, comments: “The has gone through different phases in its 15 editions. At the beginning, in 2008, it was one of only four races in Andalusia and the only one approved by the FEDME at the end of the decade. From there it has gone through phases aimed at enhancing skyrunning with up to more than a thousand participants registered. In 2019 we introduced the current course, more technical and more in line with the skyrunning philosophy, being the reference race in Andalusia in this distance.”
In this sense, Macias stressed that: “participants will have the opportunity to experience a real Skyrace on the shores of the Mediterranean, ascending the two most important peaks in the area, such as Calamorro and Cerro Castillejo by the most direct route. They will be able to enjoy a carefully designed starting area that will make them experience the reality of participating in a Merrell Skyrunner World Series race. Spectators will have the opportunity to see the best skyrunners on the planet, almost touching them in the Calamorro FAN ZONE, where we encourage everyone to gather to welcome the participants at the summit,” he concluded.
For his part, Merrell Skyrunner® World Series representative Etienne Rodriguez noted that: “the mountainous Calamorro course is effectively bound by the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. With this beautiful backdrop, you also have a brutal course. Four long climbs and four long descents make up the race route. You’re either running up or you’re running down – one or the other – there’s scarcely a flat section. The more technical sections of the course involve scrambling. It’s a race that has it all”.
“The Race Organization that manages the Calamorro Skyrace does an excellent job. The location of the race in Benalmadena is great – it’s easily accessed through Malaga airport, and it’s an area that’s likely to have great weather even in early April ” he added.
“I’m looking forward to go back to Calamorro”
Antonio Martínez (Asics), the winner in the 2023 edition, comments: “last year I started the Skyrunner circuit here and it went much better than I could have imagined in terms of results and the race itself, which is a similar terrain to the one I have in Alicante, so I am looking forward to run again and see what Calamorro has in store for us this year”.
“Winter trainings have been going great so far but I’m aware that the level of the runners is growing each year so it will be really hard to repeat the overall victory again. But, I’m motivated to try it and, why not, keep on dreaming“.
The Basque Lide Urrestarazu also starts as one of the favourites for the final victory after demonstrating her good form in La Palma. The current overall ranking leader comments: “I hope to enjoy the race and the atmosphere as much as the previous race in La Palma, and to give it my best. The Basque selection has given me the opportunity to participate in this race as well as in la Palma, and after my performance in the first event, I was eager to participate in the second race of the series as well. It’s a new race for me and I’m looking forward to know it, in addition I think that the profile of the race could work to my strengths”.
“I didn’t expect to start the circuit as leader, it was an exciting surprise for me. I know that many strong women would probably enter in the circuit in the following races so it will be difficult to maintain the leadership. Anyway, I will try as in the previous race to fight, give my best in the race and enjoy it”, Urrestarazu adds.
Following the extreme heat at last year’s edition, the race will start on Saturday, April 6 at 5:00 pm for the women’s category and at 5:30 pm for the men’s category. From that moment on, Skyrunning fans around the world will be able to connect to Skyrunning’s social media channels to follow all the news of the event.
As last year, the race can be followed live thanks to Evasión TV Play with the voice-over by trail journalist Albert Jorquera, and with technical commentary by Javier Ordieres.
