Biathlon: Norway’s Mari Wetterhus shines in the CCC
At 9am on Friday morning, former Norwegian biathlete Mari Wetterhus set off on her very first race in the legendary UTMB week: the CCC, for Courmayeur/Champex/Chamonix.
To line up for this monument to world trail running, covering 101km and 5,764 metres of positive altitude difference, the Scandinavian rider with six IBU Cup starts to her name and two youth and junior world relay medals to her name in 2017 and 2020 had shone on the trails in recent weeks.
Mari Wetterhus won the Grossglockner Ultra-Trail in Austria in July, just after taking second place in theArgentrail duo and 19th place in the 42km Mont Blanc Marathon.
In the top 100 overall
However, it was a completely different trail that she was tackling this weekend, with a race taking in the Tête de la Tronche, the Grand Col Ferret, La Fouly, Trient, Vallorcine and La Flégère before finishing in the centre of Chamonix. Mari Wetterhus got off to a cautious start for her first race , before accelerating as the kilometres went by.
In the end, after 13 hours 36 minutes and 21 seconds of effort, Juni Arnekleiv’s best friend finished 95th. This overall result places the former biathlete 24th in the women’s category and 11th in the 20-34 age group.
A remarkable performance that will surely inspire Mari Wetterhus to tackle the UTMB in the future.
> Full CCC results are available HERE
> Mari Wetterhus’s times on this CCC
