In two years, Cape City, South Africa will host the 2027 World Mountain and Path Working Championships (WMTRC) with races happening between October 6 and 10 on the rugged trails of Desk Mountain and Lion’s Head overlooking Cape City and the Atlantic Ocean.
That is the fourth working of the mixed WMTRC, which is held each different yr, and the primary time Africa has hosted the celebrated races that entice athletes from everywhere in the world. This yr, Canfranc, Spain will host the set of world championships between September 25 and 28, and prior occasions had been held in Innsbruck-Stubai, Austria in 2023, and Chiang Mai, Thailand in 2022.
The five-event weekend — together with the elite Uphill, Up and Down, Lengthy Path, and Brief Path races, along with an Beneath-20 occasion — is hosted in partnership with the Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners (IAU), the Worldwide Path Working Affiliation (ITRA), the World Mountain Working Affiliation (WMRA), and World Athletics and can deliver 1,200 athletes from 80 nations to the town. Non-elite occasions are additionally anticipated to attract one other 2,000 contributors.
Cape City mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis stated, “We’re so excited for the mountain and path working world to descend on Cape City in 2027 for the very first African staging of the World Mountain and Path Working Championships. There’s absolutely no higher backdrop to this prestigious occasion than our very personal Marvel of the Pure World, the enduring Desk Mountain.”
Cape City will host the 2027 World Mountain and Path Working Championships. Photograph courtesy of WMRA.
Historical past of the World Championships
Began in 1985, the World Mountain Working Championships (WMRC) had been held of their unique format for the ultimate time in 2019 in Villa la Angostura, Argentina, earlier than combining with the Path World Championships (TWC), which had been working since 2007. The TWC hosted what’s now generally generally known as the Brief and Lengthy occasions, whereas the WMRC was the house to the shorter Uphill and Up and Down occasions.
Now held each different yr, Chiang Mai, Thailand hosted the primary mixed occasion in 2022, a yr delayed as a result of pandemic.
Cape City’s Historical past of Path Working
Cape City is not any stranger to internet hosting main racing occasions in its yard. Along with the Cape City Marathon and the Two Oceans Marathon (which is maybe the quickest yearly held ultramarathon on this planet), the town can also be house to the Extremely–Path Cape City, which has six races starting from 16 kilometers to 100 miles.
The WMTRC programs will use trails on Desk Mountain and Lion’s Head, areas identified for his or her steep ascents, technical descents, and expansive views.
The occasion will probably be held on related trails to the 2023 Extremely-Path Cape City 100k. Photograph: iRunFar/Neville Sharwood
It’ll be a terrain totally different from something seen at prior World Championships. World Athletics President Sebastian Coe stated, “It’s all the time thrilling when a serious athletics occasion is staged in a brand new continent for the primary time, and that is no exception. Cape City internet hosting the World Mountain and Path Working Championships marks not solely an thrilling alternative for the native space, but in addition for the game as a complete.”
“On behalf of the partnership of the World Mountain Working Affiliation, the Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners and the Worldwide Path Working Affiliation, we’re delighted to deliver the fourth World Mountain and Path Working Championships to Africa,” the presidents of the three companion associations — Tomo Šarf, Nadeem Khan, and Janet Ng — stated in a joint assertion. They went on to say, “The sensational views of Cape City and Desk Mountain will kind a becoming backdrop to the WMTRC 27.”
This Yr’s Championships
The 2027 championships announcement comes two months earlier than the September 2025 occasion in Canfranc, Spain, within the Aragón Valley. The Canfranc space has hosted three WMRA World Cup occasions between 2021 and 2023, and in 2024, it hosted the World Masters Mountain Working Championships.
The total World Mountain and Path Working Championships will probably be a step up from any of these, and the realm ought to present a surprising backdrop for one of the best on this planet to compete.
iRunFar will probably be there in September, reporting on web site all week. Keep tuned!
