Photo from Spartan
Spartan announced today major partnership with some of most renowned trail events to form the Spartan Race Trail championship and named the Paragonia Run Mariano Alverez as CEO.
For more information see the press release below.
Spartan Partners with Global Trail Running Events to Create Spartan Trail World Championship with $270,000 Purse
Europe, Asia Pacific and the Americas to Host Trail Running Events from 21k to 100 miles; Spartan Appoints Patagonia Run CEO Mariano Alvarez as Spartan Trail CEO
BOSTON (February 12, 2020) – Spartan, the world’s largest endurance brand, has partnered with established trail running events across the globe to create the “Spartan Trail World Championship.” The Global series consists of six events, each with their own place in trail running history, which combine to cover four continents and a $270,000 USD prize purse for Trail Run (49k or less) and Trail Ultra (50k or greater) distances. This is a dramatic expansion of the brand’s “Spartan Trail” event series, traditional trail running races that launched in five countries last year.
Each partner race was carefully selected because of its history, challenging terrain and magnificent settings. Destinations on the inaugural Spartan Trail World Championship include:
South America: Patagonia Run, Argentina, April 3-4
Southern Europe: Lavaredo Ultra Trail, Cortina, Italy, June 25 – 27
Northern Europe: Fjallmaraton, Aré, Sweden: July 25 – Aug 1
North America Kodiak Big Bear, Big Bear, California: August 14-15
Asia Pacific: TBD
Central America: Race: La Ruta Trail, Costa Rica, November 14
Canary Islands: Transgrancanaria, Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain, March 4-8, 2021
There are no prior entry qualifications to be eligible for prize money or to participate in the points leaderboard system for any event during the Inaugural Spartan Trail World Championships. While each event weekend features multiple distances ranging from 10K to 100 miles, only two, the “Trail Run” and “Trail Ultra” are part of the World Championship prize money and points system.
The historic prize purse is expected to draw the best athletes in the sport, with Spain’s Pau Capell, and the US’s Camille Herron and Joseph Gray already confirmed.
The top five male and female athletes will be awarded a piece of the prize purse, which totals $18,800 USD per event for the Trail Ultra and $11,200 USD per event for the Trail Run categories. At the end of the season, a male and female Spartan Trail Run World Champion will be crowned in each category based on the highest number of points in each category – with the top five on the leaderboard sharing an additional $60,000 USD. Six Age Group categories will receive non-cash awards across: 14-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, 60+, excluding the men’s and women’s elite podium finishers.
With statistics showing a decrease in road race participation over the last 4 years and trail running participation growing more than 50% YOY in the same period, Spartan has continued plans for growth in the sport and has tapped Argentina’s Patagonia Run Founder Mariano Alvarez, as Spartan Trail CEO to oversee the World Championship and overall expansion. Over the course of 15 years, Alvarez has organized road and trail races across a spectrum of distances and formats, most recently founding the Patagonia Runtan. He grew the event to 4500 participants throughout 6 races distances and will oversee Spartan Trail’s operations and growth strategy.
“After running and organizing all kinds of road races, I felt the need for something different, something that would fulfill my desire to be more harmonized with nature, that would allow me to escape, and I knew others felt the same, so we created Patagonia Run,” said Alvarez. “I’m now excited to share my passion and expertise with trail runners across the globe as CEO of Spartan Trail. This year’s World Championship, with its unprecedented prize purse is just the beginning. Spartan’s Founder and CEO Joe De Sena and I have a shared vision for the future of the sport and we look forward to creating epic trail race experiences for athletes across the globe.”
The 2020 Spartan World Championship adds to the brand’s growing roster of trail and fitness events, which includes the expansion of regular season Spartan Trail events to more than a dozen countries in 2020. In addition, Spartan will host its first multi-day Mountain Bike race in partnership with La Ruta de los Conquistadores November 5-7 ahead of the November 14 Trail Race and the inaugural DEKAFIT event, a concept that encapsulates all the tenets of Spartan — grit, determination, and perseverance — in one arena with five-thousand meters of running and 10 stations testing strength, endurance, and mobility will take place in Denver, CO, USA March 21.