Haría Extreme Lanzarote is in luck. The tenth edition of the event, which will be held in 2020, will coincide with the celebration of a World Championship of the World Mountain Running Association, an association to which the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) entrusts trail running. This was confirmed this Monday at an event held in Jameos del Agua, where the president of the WMRA, the New Zealander Jonathan Wyatt, made official the designation of the 2020 World Championship after learning firsthand about the terrain of the Haría Extreme Lanzarote.
The event was also attended by the general director of sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manolo López, the sports councilor of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, Francisco Aparicio, the mayor of Haría, Alfredo Villalba, and Sergio Garasa as a member of the World Council of the WMRA.
Wyatt, who has seven world titles in Mountain Running, was in charge of giving the news after a weekend recognizing the route in the municipality of Haría. The New Zealander celebrates that, for the first time in 36 years, the World Championship will be held in Spain.
"Lanzarote has become a tourist destination and hosting a Mountain Running World Championship fits perfectly into that philosophy. The Canary Islands have seen this opportunity to combine sport and adventure and have become a benchmark when it comes to attracting thousands of people to their sporting events. We cannot forget that we had never organized a World Championship in Spain before and it is great news for us," he said.
"The organization is capable of organizing a good event and they know what this sport is about. We were concerned about the lack of high mountains in Lanzarote, so we considered it important to come to the island to verify that a mountain route can be created," added the president of the WMRA, who also confirmed that the scheme that will begin in the next World Championships in Argentina will be maintained, unifying the short and long distance in the same weekend.
The mayor of Haría: "We still don't believe it"
The general director of sports of the Government of the Canary Islands, Manolo López, stated that this news is a "great pleasure" and a "great boost" for the Haría Extreme Lanzarote. "We are going to show the world the capacity that Lanzarote and the Canary Islands have to organize this type of event and we are going to live up to it. The people who come will enjoy an idyllic island. Behind this decision there is a lot of work by many people who should be congratulated," he explained.
Representing the Cabildo of Lanzarote, its sports councilor Francisco Aparicio also wanted to express the "great joy" with which they have welcomed the designation. "It will mean that we all have to be united to be up to the task in this event. From the Cabildo we will put all the collaboration to give an optimal external image of Lanzarote from the sporting, tourist and economic point of view," he stressed.
"We still don't believe it. We feel a great emotion for hosting an event of these characteristics," said the mayor of Haría, Alfredo Villalba. "We are a small City Council, but we have institutional and personal support more than prepared to make this the best World Championship ever. We must also thank the other political corporations that have worked in these last nine years because the merit is of everyone," he added.
Sports details
Sergio Garasa, member of the World Council of the WMRA, also attended the presentation, who gave some sports details of what the 2020 World Championship will be: "There will be a Junior race of 6 kilometers, with between 400 and 600 meters of accumulated positive difference in altitude, and a Classic Vertical of 10 kilometers with departure from Famara to which we will look for the greatest possible positive difference in altitude. In addition, for the long distance Championship, the current route of the Marathon will be maintained, with 44 kilometers and 1,900 meters of accumulated positive difference in altitude," he explained.
With these ingredients, Haría Extreme Lanzarote will host the most important race of the year in the WMRA 2020 calendar, which for the first time in its 36 years of history will move to Spain for this world championship.
