On May 5 the race Vertical Kilometer® - Mt. Elbrus, 2450-3450 m. was held.

Vertical Kilometer® is the qualification before the race SkyMarathon® - Mt Elbrus.

366 athletes from 20 countries lined up in the of the “highest” Vertical kilometer in the world.

The leaders of the race overcame the distance less than 50 minutes demonstrating high level of training.

For the second year in a row, Alexey Pagnuev from Russia (Sverdlovsk Region) won in the Vertical Kilometer®:

“There were very strong front-runners with me. Evgeny Markov, Vitaly Chernov - the best Russian skyrunners of the last decade. Therefore, I thought that I could not achieve the result of last year...I liked the race. I love to run on such soft snow. ”

Last year's silver medalist Yevgeny Markov (Sverdlovsk region) is finished second again and shared his impressions of the race:

The race is hard as always. I didn’t have enough strength at the finish, so I couldn’t catch up with Alexey.

Bronze in the race won the current record holder Vitaly Chernov (Irkutsk region. Red Fox team): “It was hard to run until the middle of the race. I ran side by side with all the leaders, but I didn't have enough acclimatization for myself. "

Among the girls, Natalia Rudenko won her second award at the festival. Despite the fact that Natalia takes part in the Red Fox Elbrus Race for the first time, she and her partner won at the expeditionary race of the Elbrus Ski Monsters Expedition Race.

And now the second precious victory - gold in the Vertical Kilometer® race - Mt. Elbrus!

Natalya Rudenko: “For me, this is the first experience of participating in such competitions. As a skier, I confidently felt on the distance and chose the right tactics that helped me to finish successfully. "

The five-time winner in Vertical Kilometer® Elena Kravchenko (Irkutsk region. Red Fox team) crossed the finish line after Natalya Rudenko.

Zhanna Vokuyeva (St. Petersburg) won bronze and she repeatedly became the prizewinner of the festival Red Fox Elbrus Race: "Today is the first time when I want to cry - it was hard, but I got over it."

Author of photo : Roman Barabonov

On May 6, the athletes competing in Skyrace® - Mt Elbrus (3780-5642 m) will move to the “Barrels” to prepare for the main start of the festival - speed climbing to the western peak of Elbrus Mount.

The athletes competing in in SkyMarathon® - Mt Elbrus (2350-5642 m) will start on May 7 from the Azau meadow.

Congratulations again to the medalists and prizewinners of Vertical Kilometer®!

Author of photo : Andrey Chepakin