GB ultra distance athletes Adela Salt and Jez Bragg ran strong races in difficult conditions this weekend at the Sunmart 50 mile Trail Run, part of the IAU World Trail Challenge held in Huntsville, Texas. Both athletes took part in the race with the help of UK Athletics from an athlete development perspective, with the aim being to gain international experience of racing overseas and the difficult conditions that often go with it.

The hot and humid race conditions proved to be the biggest challenge for the duo. During the race the temperature peaked at 85° farenheit meaning that an effective hydration and nutrition strategy was essential to even complete the distance.

Salt ran an excellent race and for much of the distance was second only to the world 100km champion Norimi Sakurai (Japan). The difficult conditions did however force her to slow in the final quarter of the race and she was overtaken by Irish runner Helena Crossan. Salt finished four minutes behind her in an excellent third place with a time of 7hrs 22mins.

Bragg’s performance followed a similar theme. He ran steadily with a lead pack of three runners for the first half of the race before the conditions forced a slower pace. The clear winner was World and European 100km champion Jaroslaw Janicki in 6hrs 07mins. Bragg was fifth in 6hrs 38mins, but only nine minutes behind the second place runner.

Whilst the conditions on the day forced a relatively slow pace for all runners, the opportunity to compete in such difficult conditions will undoubtedly prove extremely valuable to Salt and Bragg, as they both continue to progress well during their debut year of running international ultra distance races.

For the full results from this World Challenge Trail event, please click on Huntsville