With start-to-finish dominance, Kenyan athletes Joyce Muthoni Njeru and Patrick Kipngeno took first place on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k.
The 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k occurred on Sunday, June 23, and was a part of the weekend of the Damaged Arrow Skyrace competition, together with a Vertical Kilometer, 11k, 18k, the Ironface Problem, and 46k races. After final 12 months’s route was lower quick attributable to poor climate circumstances, this 12 months, there was a lot much less snow and a cloudless, heat morning — the stage was set for an thrilling race.
The beginning of the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace. Picture: Scott Rokis Images
The race is 21.75 kilometers (13.5 miles) lengthy and has 1,433 meters (4,700 ft) of vertical acquire. It takes place within the Palisades Tahoe ski space, the place the legendary Western States 100 begins subsequent Saturday, and routes itself on the resort’s extra technical paths.
This race was the season opener for the 2024 World Mountain Operating Affiliation World Cup, as was the Vertical Kilometer race, which occurred two days prior.
Final 12 months’s winners of the ladies’s and males’s races, Allie McLaughlin and Eli Hemming, took half on this 12 months’s occasion, so the strain could have been on them to retain their titles. In the long run, the Kenyan athletes reigned supreme. Plus, the drama and shut racing continued to the end strains, particularly within the ladies’s race.
Learn on for the complete story.
2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k Ladies’s Race
The primary three miles of the race are the quickest and most runnable a part of the course, making it a fast begin. Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya) was first to the Snow King checkpoint at 4.6 miles in 40:23. She held a just-under-two-minute lead on Tabor Hemming, who handed the checkpoint in 42:03. Lower than one minute behind second place was final 12 months’s winner Allie McLaughlin (43:11) in third adopted shortly by Jade Belzberg in fourth and Dani Moreno in fifth. There could have been a small hole on the entrance of the race between the chief and the remainder of the sphere, however the competitors remained fierce between second by way of fifth locations and past.
Joyce Muthoni Njeru, 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k ladies’s champion. Picture: Scott Rokis Images
On a well-deserved descent from Washeau Peak, runners drop 1,200 ft in 2.5 miles to Shirley Basin, passing Siberia (the second checkpoint) on their means at mile 7.8. The ladies’s race remained regular because the runners held their positions. Njeru elevated her lead by one other minute (1:21:12) in opposition to Hemming (1:24:08), setting her up effectively for the race’s second half. McLaughlin closed the hole in third place (1:24:59) whereas the race remained tight, with Belzberg solely 30 seconds again in fourth. Moreno (1:28:15) ran in fifth.
After descending into Shirley Basin, the runners subsequent climbed 550 ft again as much as checkpoint three on the Excessive Camp assist station at 10.5 miles. It was through the ascent that Belzberg began to make her assault. Njeru (1:44:50) and Hemming (1:47:22) remained in first and second as they handed the checkpoint, however Belzberg overtook McLaughlin, taking on the third-place place in 1:48:15. Nonetheless, the hole remained tight with McLaughlin reaching Excessive Camp at 1:48:53 and Moreno three minutes behind at 1:52:00.
Jade Belzberg all smiles on an ascent. She would take second on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Andy Wacker
It was Joyce Muthoni Njeru who crossed the end line first at 2:11:52. But it surely was tight.
Jade Belzberg made up lots of time on the steep descent to complete in second place, simply over 30 seconds behind Njeru in 2:12:29. It was an unbelievable race for the athlete who managed to take a podium spot in the previous few miles of the route.
Tabor Hemming got here by way of the end in third in 2:13:31, whereas final 12 months’s winner, Allie McLaughlin, completed in 2:14:53 for fourth place. Dani Moreno maintained fifth place in 2:17:04. It was an thrilling finish for the ladies’s high positions.
Tabor Hemming on her approach to taking third on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Jonathan Wyatt
2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k Ladies’s Outcomes
- Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya) – 2:11:52
- Jade Belzberg – 2:12:29
- Tabor Hemming – 2:13:31
- Allie McLaughlin – 2:14:53
- Dani Moreno – 2:17:04
- Rachel Tomajczyk – 2:21:11
- Sydney Petersen – 2:23:01
- Abby Lock – 2:24:42
- Sarah Carter – 2:26:29
- Karley Rempel – 2:30:38
The 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k ladies’s podium (left to proper): 3. Tabor Hemming, 1. Joyce Muthoni Njeru, and three. Jade Belzberg. Picture: Nancy Hobbs
2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k Males’s Race
The favourite for the 23k race was final 12 months’s winner and 2023 Mont Blanc Marathon runner-up, Eli Hemming — additionally the husband of ladies’s third-place finisher Tabor Hemming. Nonetheless, it was Kenyan athlete Patrick Kipngeno who took the lead into checkpoint one, setting a tone for the day. Kipngeno got here in at 32:49, one minute sooner than Hemming. He was adopted shortly after by Kenyan athlete Philemon Ombogo Kiriago (34:15) and Taylor Stack, who remained shut behind in third and fourth. Simply 30 seconds later, Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau entered the primary checkpoint at 35:24, an expansion of about 2.5 minutes for the highest 5 males.
Patrick Kipngeno, 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k males’s champion. Picture: Scott Rokis Images
In the meantime, Kipngeno continued to extend the hole between himself (1:04:36) and Hemming (1:06:25) some 7.8 miles in at Siberia, the second checkpoint. Located simply after the race’s highest peak, athletes face a difficult climb, scrambling on the high, adopted by a steep descent. Subsequent to the checkpoint have been Kiriago, Stack, and Beaudoin-Rousseau.
There was much less drama within the males’s race, with no vital adjustments as Kipngeno managed to carry onto his lead on the final incline to the Excessive Camp assist station, passing the checkpoint at 1:23:24 and Hemming at 1:25:21, nonetheless taking a two-minute lead on final 12 months’s champion, the identical hole as on the prior checkpoint. One other two minutes later, Kiriago crossed by way of at 1:27:13, adopted by Stack (1:28:30) and Beaudoin-Rousseau (1:29:59).
It was no shock that Patrick Kipngeno took first place, crossing the end line in 1:45:37, adopted by Eli Hemming in 1:47:00 for second place.
Eli Hemming on his approach to taking second on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Andy Wacker
It was an amazing day for Kenyan athletes, as Philemon Ombogo Kiriago got here third at 1:50:23 to associate with the ladies’s and males’s win. Taylor Stack completed fourth at 1:51:12, and Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau fifth at 1:52:16.
Philemon Ombogo Kiriago working onerous on an uphill. He would take third on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. Picture: Andy Wacker
2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k Males’s Outcomes
- Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya) – 1:45:37
- Eli Hemming – 1:47:00
- Philemon Ombogo Kiriago (Kenya) – 1:50:23
- Taylor Stack – 1:51:12
- Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau – 1:52:16
- Hawk Name – 1:54:04
- Andrew Douglas (U.Okay.) – 1:54:28
- Rémi Leroux (Canada) – 1:55:09
- Sam Hendry – 1:55:24
- Cade Michael – 1:55:30
The 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k males’s podium (left to proper): 3. Philemon Ombogo Kiriago, 1. Patrick Kipngeno, and a pair of. Eli Hemming. Picture: Nancy Hobbs