Two of the top athletes in the women’s WTCS showed off their winter running speed over the past two weekends.
WTCS gold medallist Maya Kingma and World Cup gold medallist Julie Derron raced in their home countries of the Netherlands and Switzerland, respectively, and produced some rapid results.
Kingma took on the Montferland Run, a race of 15km over an undulating course. In the end, she clocked 53:03 (with a chip time of 53:01) which was enough to make her the 10th woman across the line.
Kingma noted that she was only 4 weeks into her training after off-season. As such, her performance was very encouraging. Lately (indeed for much of the season), she has struggled with persistent injury niggles however she appeared to have come through the Montferland Run without any side effects.
Her time of 53 minutes would also loosely translate into around a sub-35 minute 10km. For the time of year, it could be a sign of a big 2024 looming ahead.
Meanwhile, Derron took on the elite race at the Zurich Silvesterlauf. In a fast and furious format, the elite women’s event consisted of 4km which was broken up into 12 laps.
The 12 laps consisted of the following format:
- Lap 1-3 warm-up rounds without elimination – NO OUT
- Lap 4-7 the last runner and all those lapped are eliminated – ONE OUT PER LAP
- Lap 8 only top 10 runners remain in the race – TOP 10 THROUGH
- Lap 9 non-elimination – NO OUT
- Lap 10 only top 5 runners remain in the race – TOP 5 THROUGH
- Lap 11 non-elimination – NO OUT
- Lap 12 in the last lap, the runners sprinted for victory.
Derron made it to the end of the race without being eliminated and ended up being the 4th woman over the finish line.
Derron all but secured Olympic qualification for Paris 2024 after a stunning summer in which she was a consistent force inside the top-10 at WTCS races. After injury compromised the start of her season, she bounced back with top-8 finishes at WTCS Sunderland and the Paris Test Event which essentially satisfied the Swiss Olympic qualifying criteria. Thereafter, she added another top-8 finish at WTCS Pontevedra for good measure.
Being in the depths of December, it is too soon to read any major insights into the form of athletes ahead of next year. Nevertheless, based on their previous records and their current running shape, Kingma and Derron will in all likelihood need to be watched closely.
