85km Trail World Championships challenges Vlad

“This was the most competitive trail race in the world” said Vlad “with a super hard technical course, this was one of the hardest events I have ever done.”

Two hundred and two runners lined up at the start.

“I started slow as I know that it was going to be a warm day” Vlad explained to us afterwards “and a lot of runners will slow down in the second half of the race, by half way point I was at about 40th place feeling ok but my feet were already hurting from all the rocks and uneven terrain.

“In the second half of the race even though i was hurting and the temperatures were around 30 degrees i started moving up the field and finished at 25th place. I wouldn't say it was my best race ever but i just stayed solid the whole day and kept on moving forward.”

Despite the tough field, with the strongest trail runners globally attending, Vlad’s finish in the top 15% was also He was the fastest runner from the Southern hemisphere and just one place behind the fastest runner from outside Europe. His time of 9 hours 38 minutes and 15 seconds meant he averaged less than 7 minutes per kilometre, which is outstanding for a course with such a challenging surface, distance and height gain.

Following the gruelling event Vlad immediately turned his attention to other events, and was ready to come back in 2017.

“Representing Australia was an amazing experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again next year! “

Vlad’s profile

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