The 2016 Skyrunner World Series schedule was announced today.
As in the previous several years, it will host separate series for the Vertical Kilometer, Sky, and Ultra categories. There are lots of familiar races back from the 2015 series, a few departures, and a couple new races added. Notable changes include expansions in the VK and Sky series, from the traditional five-race series to seven races in the VK and eight races in the Sky series. In the Sky series, an interesting mainland China race was added, the Yading Skyrun. The Ultra series remains fives races, but gone is the Mont Blanc 80k from it.
Added for next year is a new three-race Sky Extreme category containing the most-technical races in the Skyrunner lot. Trofeo Kima, which is raced every other year and has been included in the Sky series for its last several editions, is moved to the Sky Extreme category, and the Tromsø SkyRace is moved from the Ultra category to Sky Extreme. Added to the Sky Extreme category is the Glen Coe Skyline, in Scotland, which also looks interesting.
Skyrunning is also hosting Continental Championships and World Championships in 2016, but those events are yet to be announced. The organization confirms that there won’t be joint scoring between the Continental Championships and the World Series, as there was in 2015, where runners could include one continental result in their World Series rankings. Last year, this allowed many runners to compete in the World Series with one less trip to Western Europe. A positive effect of this is that it will concentrate competition in the World Series events, but, on the down side, the Skyrunner World Series returns to a heavily Western European-centric series.
There are a few changes to the scoring, aside from no joint scoring between the Continental Championships and the World Series. To achieve a World Series ranking, runners’ four best results will be scored in the VK and Sky categories, two best results in the Sky Extreme, and three best results in the Ultra. The awarded points remains the same, and the same 20% points boost for placing in the final race of each series will be scored.
Skyrunning says the end-of-season prize purse will be €36,000, and that a total of at least €135,000 will be awarded over the course of the whole Skyrunner World Series.
Here’s the 2016 Skyrunner World Series schedule for each category:
Vertical Kilometer
May 5 — KM Vertical — La Palma, Spain
June 24 — Santa Caterina Vertical Kilometer — Sondrio, Italy
July 10 — Kilomètre Vertical Face De Bellevarde — Val d’Isère, France
July 15 — Dolomites Vertical Kilometer — Canazei, Italy
August 5 — Blaman Vertical — Tromsø, Norway
September 2 — Lone Peak Vertical Kilometer — Montana, USA
October 21 — Limone Extreme Vertical Kilometer — Limone sul Garda, Italy
Sky
April 30 — Yading Skyrun (29k) — Sichuan, China
May 22 — Zegama-Aizkorri Marathon (42k) — Zegama, Spain
June 26 — Livigno Outdoor Race Experience (30k) — Livigno, Italy
July 17 — Dolomites SkyRace (22 km) — Canazei, Italy
July 31 — SkyRace Coma Pedrosa (22k) — Andorra
August 20 — Matterhorn Ultraks 46k — Zermatt, Switzerland
September 4 — The Rut 25k — Montana, USA
October 22 — Limone Extreme SkyRace (23k) — Limone sul Garda, Italy
Sky Extreme
August 7 — Tromsø SkyRace (50k) — Tromsø, Norway
August 28 — Trofeo Kima (50k) — Valmasino, Italy
September 18 — Glen Coe Skyline (53k) — Glen Coe, Scotland
Ultra
May 7 — Transvulcania Ultramarathon (75k) — La Palma, Spain
June 4 — Ultra SkyMarathon Madeira (55k) — Madeira, Portugal
July 10 — High Trail Vanoise (68k) — Val d’Isère, France
September 4 — The Rut 50k — Montana, USA
September 24 — Ultra Pirineu (110k) — Bagà, Spain
Call for Comments
- What do you think of the 2016 Skyrunner World Series?
- What do you think of the changes from the 2015 World Series?
- Are there any races you’d like to participate in?
