2023 Championships
The World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (WMTRC) for 2023 were held on the 6-10th June at Innsbruck-Stubai in Austria.
Teams representing Great Britain and Northern Ireland competed in both the Short Trail (45km) and Long Trail (85k ) events. There were also teams in the traditional short Mountain Running races.
In the short trail event, GB & NI secured a superb individual silver medal through Thomas Roach. He led the men’s team, followed by Jon Albon in 5th and Kris Joined in 8th to gold medals.
2024 Championships
The championships plan to alternate annually between a global world event and a Continental European one.
The 2024 event will be a European championship. It will be held in Annecy, France on 31 May to 2 June 2024 and will feature a trail race of approximately 60km with 3500m ascent and descent NB distance still tbc. There is no long trail event.
There will also be short mountain races. Selection information together with details of any respective Trial races is usually announced toward the end of the year.
Details will be available on the Mountain Running pages of the UKA website at https://www.uka.org.uk/competition/running/
2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championship
These championships are scheduled for the end of September 2025 in Canfranc in the Spanish Pyrenees.
It will feature both Short and Long trail races, together with short Mountain Races.
Selection information and details of any respective trial races are usually announced toward the end of the year at the above 2024 link.
When appropriate, there is a selection trial race for the Long trail event. If there is no nominated trial race for the Long trail, selection is made by performance Matrix. Events in the previous 12 months, over similar distances and terrain, are then taken into account.
Details will be available on the Mountain Running pages of the UKA website at https://www.uka.org.uk/competition/running/
Further information and guidelines, for anyone wishing to be considered for selection going forward for the Long trail team, can be obtained from Adrian Stott at taritstott@icloud.com
For short mountain events and the Short trail race, contact Anne Buckley at annembuckley@yahoo.com
General overview
With the phenomenal growth in trail running in recent years, UK Athletics continues to support the sending of teams to the major World and European Ultra Trail Championships.
Recent developments have seen the establishment of the joint World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (WMTRC), and the European off-road championships.
These two championships are scheduled for alternate years.
The world event along with the traditional Mountain races, features a short trail event of approximately 45km and a long trail event of approximately 80km.
The European off-road event features the traditional Mountain races and a short trail race of approximately 45km
The global championships continues to grow in status and bring many of the world’s best runners together.
Great Britain has a strong record in recent years with men’s individual medals for Jon Albon, Gold in 2019 and Bronze in 2022 and Tom Evans, Bronze in 2018.
There have also been top ten finishes by Jon Albon 2018, Tom Owens 2015, Andy Symonds 2016 and Kris Jones in 2022.
For the women there have been individual medal successes for Angela Mudge 2nd and Lizzie Hawker 3rd in 2009 with top ten finishes for Holly Page in 2018, Jo Meek and Beth Pascall in 2016, Elsey Davis and Sharon Taylor in 2022.
Like Cross Country, the team element of the championships is also an integral part and the Great Britain and Northern Ireland teams have regularly achieved team medals in both mountain and trail competitions.