World Athletics assists the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA), the International Trail Running Association (ITRA) and the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) in organising the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships (WMTRC) on a biennial basis. The WMTRC is where the world’s best off-road runners are released into the wild. Held over three days, elite international athletes compete in a total of 10 official world championships across four competition formats, as well as other open or promotional races for mass participation athletes. The WMTRC celebrates the force of nature, capturing new frontiers or re-purposing off-season resorts.

In 2021, due to the Corona pandemic situation, for the second consecutive year, a World Mountain Running Championships was not able to be held. The WMRA member federations have selected teams, the runners were working hard and had a the goal to be ready for the most important Mountain Running race of the year. To enable at least one International race in the season for National teams, the WMRA decided to organise a new competition, called the WMRA Nations Cup to allow National teams to compete against each other.

After an exciting day of racing at the Canfranc 45k race, our 9^th round of the World Cup, yesterday, we didn’t have long to wait for round 10. Canfranc provided the stunning backdrop again for the 16k classic mountain race today. 

There was a huge amount of excitement for the first ever World Cup race in Spain on Saturday 11^th September! Canfranc-Canfranc served up two races for us this weekend. Firstly, the 45k race today was round 9 of this year’s World Cup, our next long mountain race. Tomorrow it’s the 16k classic mountain race for round 10.

Canfranc-Canfranc celebrates its 15^th edition this year, and it's a race whose reputation has been growing over the last few years. There are many elements which make it an incredibly special event and we are very happy to be including it in the World Cup for the first time this year.