Following the cancellations of Kodiak Big Bear in the US due to forest fires, and Patagonia Run due to COVID-19 restrictions, Spartan Trail will focus on organizing the 2021-22 season of its World Championship series.
In a year that has hit everyone across the endurance sports industry very hard, Spartan Trail has confirmed the cancellation of the 2020 edition of the Spartan Trail World Championship series.
In a release, the organiser noted…
‘The great start and development of the relaunch with Fjällmaraton gave us a window of hope and opportunity to keep the Championship rolling; but unfortunately, forest fires hit the Kodiak Big Bear race area hard, and the COVID-19 situation in Argentina didn’t allow Patagonia Run to be held in any sort of adapted format this year.’
Mariano Alvarez, CEO of Spartan Trail, added “We’ve done everything to sustain the World Championship in its inaugural year, but the truth is the COVID-19 pandemic was relentless with all our events and we were just able to do one of the six races we had planned, which would make a total lack of sense to the global concept of the World Championship.
“Now we’ve decided to put all our focus on the 2021-22 season, there’s a large list of important events that surely will bring surprise and expectation to the trail and ultra running community of the world.”
News regarding the new races, formats and locations of the Spartan Trail World Championship series will be launched later this year.
A release from Spartan added…
‘We also want to take the opportunity to thank all the Halo Partner organizations (Transgrancanaria, Patagonia Run, Lavaredo Ultra Trail, Kodiak Big Bear, Fjällmaraton & La Ruta Trail) for the hard efforts made to support the Spartan Trail World Championship in this difficult year, and to all the runners out there, be ready to tackle and discover the world with the amazing races of the upcoming 2021-22 season. Stay motivated, stay safe and healthy, and be ready!’
Spartan and its local event partners continue to follow CDC guidelines and work with local government and health officials to monitor the COVID-19 pandemic – and will adjust race and safety protocols as needed for the 2021 season.
To prepare for the 2021 race season, Spartans around the world can train and race virtually through a series of ‘UNBREAKABLE’ programs including live and on-demand at-home workouts, the Spartan Fit training app and a series of virtual races that have attracted more than 100,000 participants to date.
