Jim Walmsley World Mountain Champion!!

Actually... wrote:

There are rumors about Gray and his sudden improvement late in his career. Very Farah-esque. It remains to be seen how effective doping control is in mountain running.

Not seeing that. He won his first mountain running national title 11 seasons ago. He had a nice 10,000 PR a couple years ago, not outrageous. It's not like he's run very many of those - easily explained by focus/training group.

Dopazrecon wrote:

Gray is the most tested US trailer and mountain Goat, doubt he is using anything, even gets tested out of competition with surprise tests at home. He would have been caught long ago when this dominance started. Guys like Jim who are not tested much at all are guys I would be curious about doping rumors.

Lets not. "Rumors" that are not based on evidence about a specific person contributes to a cesspool atmosphere. If there's a test result, raid with doping products founds, etc., go at it. But not the I don't like the guy, or his race, or country sh1t, or degree of separation. Everyone on the elite level has a 1 degree of separation with a doper, whether they know it or not.

Italiano mercialago wrote:

To fair, Many know of the classic distance mountain events in Europe, it's just your USA who is behind the times. Actually the athletes who are dominant in the short classic makes more money. Gray is making a ton just as Mamu and another eritrean athlete also living in Germany. Also, to give perspective on the long distance event. It's quite a weak event, Jim almost lost to Puppi whom Gray and Mamu both have beaten all season by large margins in much shorter distance.

Jim beat Puppi by less than 1 min in a trail marathon but Gray has beaten Puppi by 2+ minutes in 12k and also 18k here in Italy. USA is becoming quite strong all of a sudden. Maybe Jim and Joe are working with Salazar since USA team is Nike now.

Wow, you know Jack s#! + about the scene. Puppi isn't raking it in, he's a high school science teacher, and all around awesome dude. I hope his Nike sponsorship is more than gear only, the guy is seriously talented.

Mamu lives in Austria in the summer with his manager, kinda dodgy IMHO.

And there is still a significant difference between World Cup and World Championships. It's really hard to get all the top athletes to take time off work, pay their travel, to do a race. I love doing World Cup races, but it is not nearly as competitive as a world champs. And although Salomon has pumped a lot of money into Golden Trail, it's just a sample of elites and not a true world champs.

As the title of this thread says, Jim Walmsley is the World Mountain Champion. Not sure why this is even an argument. He's the most known American to me in the mountain running world. Spectacular WS100 record and great efforts in the UTMB in 2017 along with another great American Tollefson.

Bert Birage wrote:

As the title of this thread says, Jim Walmsley is the World Mountain Champion. Not sure why this is even an argument. He's the most known American to me in the mountain running world. Spectacular WS100 record and great efforts in the UTMB in 2017 along with another great American Tollefson.

He's most known for whining getting lost at WS100.

And he was beaten by a Japanese hobbyjogger this spring at the Hoka 100.

Bert Birage wrote:

As the title of this thread says, Jim Walmsley is the World Mountain Champion. Not sure why this is even an argument. He's the most known American to me in the mountain running world. Spectacular WS100 record and great efforts in the UTMB in 2017 along with another great American Tollefson.

I didn't realize it right away, but the Euros responding here are combining mountain and trail, while my response to someone about the GOAT USA mountain runner was more specific, distinguishing between mountain and trail. The WS100 is not considered a mountain run in the US, it's considered a trail ultra. Walmsley has not really even done many races that are labeled "mountain running". Maybe UTMB and Hardrock should be described as mountain ultras, but they are not in the US media. I associate mountain running with shorter, non-ultra races. The race that Walmsley won this weekend was the "long course" at the World Mountain Running Championships.

In an IG post a few mins ago, Jim said he plans to run Comrades.

Ultrahobbyjogger wrote:

In an IG post a few mins ago, Jim said he plans to run Comrades.

He could win there, even if his rivals show up in Cheaterflies. But he's definitely going to be at a disadvantage.

Ultrahobbyjogger wrote:

In an IG post a few mins ago, Jim said he plans to run Comrades.

That's great. I think that would be a perfect race for him.

The amount of ignorance in this thread is beyond belief.

Gray is a short distance specialist and a total beast at what he does, at the beginning of the season he was close to retirement after a bad injury and he came back strong to win this title. Nothing but respect for him.

Walmsley has demonstrated an absurd range from medium distances to ultras. Not many can CR at WS, run a 64 min HM and win mountain world championships in the same season. Haters should brace themselves. He tries super hard all the time and there's nothing laughable when he DNF, it's his aggressive style.

Puppi was the mountain world champ in 2017 after Mamu DQ for doping so is not exactly a surprise. His results this year has been progressively better, he was far from top mental shape at the beginning of the season but finished very strong.

Comparing results from different races/years is dumb, all these mountain guys race a lot and so up and downs in their results may happen.

Yes, there seems to be a disconnect here. Don't guys like Walmsley and Tollefson not even participate in the US mountain running championships?

Let's be honest here, Tollefson doesnt compete in anything competitive outside of 1 race per yr (utmb). He wouldn't dare lineup at any competitive mountain trail champs in the USA or at the world level

Definitely a big difference between the short and long distance races. No way Jim is beating Joe at the short and vice versa with the long. JG hasn’t really moved up to longer trial or mountain races and likewise with Jim for shorter. JW being an ultra specialist, it’s a big ask to get him to drop down to 12k races.

This is why I like sierre zinal so much. The middle ground in distance and vert. Fast with significant climbing. It’s a highly competitive event and getting more so with it without it being part of a world championship or cup race. You always find the very best athletes across a range of distances and disciplines. Whether they arrive in form is another thing.

Interestingly JW beat JG’s fastest time there on his first attempt when it wasn’t a priority race for him (and JG has had several attempts at SZ). The longer the distance on mountain/trail, the more it will favour JW. I would say half marathon and over.

To compare Sierre zinal times for Gray and Jim is ridiculous. The year Gray was 2nd the course was very sloppy and also he led almost entire race with no help. Jim ran it on the most perfect weather day, dry and also had 4 athletes pressing ahead of him most of the way. At SZ being that it is steep, also some technical and fast tracks, Gray would win easily over Jim. Maybe at 50k same terrain Jim wins, however at 32k Kilian will more than likely give both some major problems!

"Major problems" as in mop the floor with them?

Is Jim ever going to race Zegama? He's been saying he wants to for some years. If you want to measure yourself up against Kilian, you do it there.

XxConnected wrote:

Let's be honest here, Tollefson doesnt compete in anything competitive outside of 1 race per yr (utmb). He wouldn't dare lineup at any competitive mountain trail champs in the USA or at the world level

Let's be honest here. Tollefson works for a living.

Walmsley is a professional runner and does nothing else.

Sisay Lemma ran 2:03:36 for 3rd in Berlin.

Eh. I think Tollefson just chooses to not race a lot. Easy example is he ran some random race in China the other day. Could have easily been replaced by TNF or JFK 50.

Comparing to Last Year in Poland I believe this year was much more competitive. By putting it at the end of the season there are far fewer conflicts. However, it is true that some top competition was missing (Golden Trail Series guys, no Africans, diluted competition with back to back short and long. etc.).

Last year in Poland: This Year in Argentina:

1st Alessandro Rambaldini 24th place

2nd Robert Krupicka 19th place

4th Jiri Cipi 16th place

6th Jonathan Schmid 11th place