Today’s deeply stacked men’s and women’s fields guaranteed some hot competition at the Matterhorn Ultraks 46K, second race in the Skyrunner® World Series.

It was Switzerland’s own Martin Anthamatten, race ambassador and co-designer of the course, to claim the race - his at last three years after the launch. He raced in a strongly competitive field led by Aritz Egea, right to the summit of the race at Gornergrat, at 3,100m set among the spectacular glaciers descending from Europe’s second highest mountain, Monte Rosa. Anthamatten crossed the Scott Summit here in 2^nd, Hassan Ait Chaou 3^rd, Ionut Zinca 4^th, Manuel Merillas 5^th and Tom Owens 6^th. Tadei Pivk, leading the ranking with two straight Zegama and Dolomites wins, was forced to retire for health reasons.

From here, it was a fast downhill to Zermatt, with Anthamatten, now 30’" ahead of Egea at Schwarzee followed by Ait Chaou and Merillas. Anthamatten held the pace and position to close to an excited crowd in 4h45’11”, just two minutes over the course record of 4h43’05” set by Kilian Jornet in 2013. Merillas was second in 4h54’32” and Egea, 4h56’13”.

At the start, predictions for the women’s field were an open book. The race was to unfold with Megan Kimmel, winner at Dolomites, strongly leading the field and crossing the Gornergrat summit first and all the way down to Schwarzee. The lead pack at the summit had Megan, followed by Stevie Kremer, last year’s winner, Maite Maiora and Elisa Desco.

Skyrunning is not just about the uphill and more than often, it’s the downhill that determines the winner. Megan had given it her all and it was at Schwarzee that her resources burned out. Stevie and Maite ran together for a stretch from here, with Elisa in third. Elisa dug deep and took over the lead to take a glorious win in 5h23’49”, Stevie 2^nd in 5h24’45” and Maite in 5h31’30”.

Race results

Men

1. MARTIN ANTHAMATTEN (SUI) 4h45'11''532
2. MERILLAS MOLEDO MANU (ESP) 4h54'32''702
3. ARITZ EGEA (ESP) 4h56'13''303

Women
1. DESCO ELISA (ITA) 5h23'46''393
2. KREMER STEVIE (USA) 5h24'45''578
3. MAIORA MAITE (ESP) 5h31'30''936

Sky Series ranking (provisional)

Men

1. Manuel Merillas (ESP) Mammut/Compressport – 244 points

2. Ionut Zinca (RUM) Valetudo – 220 points

3. Aritz Egea (ESP) EMF – 204 points

3. Tom Owens (GBR) Salomon – 204 points

Women

1. Elisa Desco (ITA) SCOTT Sports/Compressport – 278 points

2. Maite Maiora (ESP) La Sportiva - 230 points

3. Laura Orguè Vila (ESP) Salomon - 188 points

3. Stevie Kremer (USA) Salomon – 188 points

Nearly 700 runners from 34 countries competed in the 46K on Saturday with a total of 1,800 participants from 46 countries over the weekend’s four events – a 30% increase on last year’s figures.

Alpina Watches, Offical Watch of the 2015 Skyrunner® World Series and European Skyrunning Championships was also race sponsor, offering a luxury Alpina Horological Smartwatch to the winners of the Alpina Sky Prize:  the fastest man and woman on the “Alpina Triangle” segment, from Sunnegga to Riffelalp via the Gornergrat, will each receive a luxury horological smartwatch. Megan Kimmel and Aritz Egea were the winners of the prize, the first luxury watch brand to incorporate a smartwatch.

The Skyrunner® World Series moves on to the rugged Montana mountains from September 4-6 for The Rut, hosting a Vertical Kilometer®, 25K SkyRace® and a 50K Ultra where more

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Current Sky ranking

Race website

Race results

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