The 2015 Skyrunner® World Series will come to a close on Saturday, October 17 in the magnificent location of Limone on Italy’s Lake Garda. Here, both the Vertical and the Sky Series titles are at stake and the world's top ranked athletes will be there to grab them.

The field in the 23km Limone Extreme SkyRace® is wide open in both the men’s and the women’s categories which will make for an electrifying event. Eight out of the top ten women will be lining up with a full ten out of ten in the men’s.  Where to begin?

The women’s game has top contenders, Laura Orgue, Elisa Desco, Maite Maiora, Megan Kimmel and Stevie Kremer, last year’s winner, battling for the title. Recently crowned Ultra Series Champion, Emelie Forsberg will be racing up front too, but her 7th ranking position leaves the title out of reach has decided to have a well-earned break to prepare for the skimo season and has withdrawn from the competitions.

The men’s contenders are Tadei Pivk, currently leading the Series, Manuel Merillas 2nd and Martin Anthamatten 6th in the most competitive field to date, pushed hard by rising star Rémi Bonnet is missing the strategic Continental Championship points. (This year’s ranking is based on three out of five scores plus one Continental).
Among the top ten racing here are Aritz Egea, Tom Owens, Ionut Zinca, Pere Rulan, Hassan Ait Chaou, Marco De Gasperi and Dai Matsumoto.

Both Megan Kimmel ranked 4th and Martin Anthamatten, 6th have no points to discard and gain 20% extra points at the finals.

Preceding Saturday’s race will be Friday’s spectacular night-time Extreme Vertical Kilometer® which climbs 1,080m high above the lake where the runners will scramble up the rocky limestone trail in a torch-light procession.

Nine out of the men’s top ten will participate: Rémi Bonnet, Nejc Kuhar, Ferran Teixido, Martin Anthamatten, Francois Gonon, Thorbjorn Ludvigsen, Marco Moletto, Stian Hovind-Angermund, William Bon Mardion and Urban Zemmer.

The women’s field is headed by Laura Orguè who already has the title in her pocket with 366 points, even if Emelie Forsberg, ranked 2nd, wins the race. The other contenders for the podium include Maite Maiora, Yngvild Kaspersen, Christel Devalle, Iva Milesova, Megan Kimmel and Azara Garcia.

We all know that the Netherlands are flat, but some great runners are emerging. In fact, Netherlands Skyrunning will hold their National VK Championships here with no less than 27 runners competing in Friday’s Vertical Kilometer®.
It is also interesting to note that anti-doping tests will carried out by the Italian Skyrunning Federation after the Saturday’s SkyRace®.

The two events are yet again testimony to the success of the Skyrunner® World Series, with 1,000 participants from 39 countries in the two races (760 and 240 respectively) – a 400% increase since the first edition in 2012 which counted a total of 233 participants.

What better way to close the skyrunning season than with a lake-side prize-giving ceremony on Saturday evening where the Skyrunner® World Series will award cash prizes to the top three winners in each Series as well as a luxury Alpina Horological Smartwatch to the Vertical and Sky Series Champions - whoever they may be!

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Skyrunner® World Series ranking

Race website

*Updated 14 October, 2015