Confirmed National teams and Athletes

It is exponential the number of national teams  and athletes registered for this challenge, with 55 teams and more than 400 athletes “on the way” of the Abutres 2019TWC, a record number in what concerns the Trail World Championships.

As for the men’s teams, the big highlight goes to Spain and France that appear as favorites, but Italy, Great Britain and the USA (teamwith higher number of ITRA points)arrive quite strong to this Trail World Championships. In addition to these, Romania is extremely strong, having 3 top world athletes in their team who usually stand in the top 15 of the rankings, and Portugal is with a very cohesive team in addition to being playing at home .

As for the women’s teams, it is expected that the women’s collective victory will be strongly disputed between France and Spain, appearing immediately after Italy, Great Britain, the USA and Poland that presents itself with an excellent team.

As for individual male performance, it is predicted that this will be the most competitive event in trail running history, so it is difficult to refer candidates from so many amazing athletes who will be attending 2019TWC. However, due to the characteristics of the event, we can highlight Jonathan Albon (Great Britain) and Zaid Ait Malek (Spain), who have a track almost to their measure, but also Nicolas Martin (France), Tim Tollefson (United States) , Marco de Gasperi (Italy), Cristofer Clemente (Spain) and, of course, Luis Alberto Hernando, the Spanish athlete who does not need any kind of presentation. But we can never forget the Portuguese André Rodrigues, who has an excellent moment of physical form, who has twice won the Trilhos dos Abutres and knows the terrain very well.

Besides these, and how can anything happen in a TWC, we can not fail to mention Aurelien Dunand-Pallaz and Ludovic Pommeret, from France; Ionut Zinca Alin (Romania), a great athlete who has spent almost 3 years without competing because of injury but is already in great shape and ready for combat; Francespo Puppi (Italy), a great talent who was once World Mountain Runner in 2017; Anthony Costales, an extremely fast athlete; Andreu Simon and Antonio Martinez from Spain; and Dimitris Theodorakakos from Greece.

For the women’s individual podium, predictions are easier, with the favorites on the podium being Azara Garcia dos Salmones (Spain), Ruth Croft (New Zealand) and Ragna Debats (Netherlands), being that Adeline Roche (France), who was World Champion in 2017; Anna Mae Flyn and Kelly Wolf (United States of America), Holly Page and Jasmin Paris (Great Britain), Denisa Gragomir (Romania), Silvia Rampazzo (Italy), Sheila Avilez (Spain), and Mercedes Pila (Ecuador), winner of the Ultra Trilhos dos Abutres 2017, may well surprise everyone.

But of course in a World Championship event where the best of the best are present, anything can happen.13