Round 2 / TRAIL RUNNING - PLUM KV COURCHEVEL - Friday 7 August 2015

Jean-François Philipot and Stéphanie Duc, new leaders of the Plum KV Courchevel in trail running!

For safety reasons, the "Plum KV Courchevel" of Friday 24 July was cancelled because of thunderstorms and hail. The "Skyrunner France Series KV" event was therefore postponed to 7 August.

For the "Skyrunner France Series KV" held this Friday 7 August as the 2nd round of the "Plum KV Courchevel", the podiums were well endowed with €600 of prize money and this time the weather forecast was right, announcing the day before excellent mountain conditions with sunshine from morning to evening. Among the 84 participants, the trail running Vertical Kilometre specialists were present, including the reigning French trail running vertical kilometre champion Jean-François Philipot but also two members of the French trail running team, Stéphanie Duc and Fabien Antolinos.

After these 5 km and 1,000 m of elevation gain, starting in a time trial from Le Praz to reach the summit of La Loze, the undisputed master of the discipline Jean-François Philipot smashed the record held until then by Frédéric Thérisod (42min13s) after the first round on 10 July, posting a superb time of 38min43s. Behind him, in 40min57s, came Australian Daniel Green and the winner of the 54 km of the Courchevel X-Trail 2015, Fabien Antolinos, who finished in 41min58s.

Among the women, Stéphanie Duc, winner of the 20 km of the Courchevel X-Trail 2015, also blew the clock apart by setting the new provisional record at 49min22s. Corail Bugnard could do nothing to save the lead she had held after the first round, finishing second this time in 52min48s. Géraldine Bau completed the podium in 57min23s.

Worthy of note is the fine performance of Suzy Bartnicki and Christian Citadelle of Sainte-Rose in Guadeloupe, who finished in 1h19min04s and 1h21min26s respectively, with the congratulations of the mayor of the resort, Philippe Mugnier, who came specially to encourage the participants at the finish.

At the end of the 4 trail running climbs on 28 August, the men’s and women’s records of the season will be rewarded with prize money of €500.

Jean-François Philipot and Stéphanie Duc take the lead in the overall standings of the Plum KV Courchevel Ski Mountaineering / Trail Running challenge.

The Plum KV Courchevel Ski Mountaineering / Trail Running challenge is open to people who took part in a ski mountaineering event last winter and a trail running event this summer. To compile the challenge standings, the best ski mountaineering and trail running times are retained and added together for each participant.

At the final on 28 August, prize money of €1,000 will reward the best time by a man and a woman of the season, by adding the 2 best performances in ski mountaineering and trail running.

Having respectively recorded times of 45min06s and 57min06s in ski mountaineering, Jean-François Philipot and Stéphanie Duc currently lead the challenge.