Jack Scott wins Montane Spine Race 2024 smashing course record, as Clare Bannwarth defends women's title with huge PB
Jack Scott, a 29-year-old Inov-8 athlete from Staffordshire, has won the Montane Spine Race 2024, smashing the course record by over 10 hours.
He reached Kirk Yetholm on the English-Scottish border just before 9am on Wednesday morning (17 January) after 72 hours 55 minutes and 5 seconds of running – and having slept for just 54 minutes during the entire race.
RW columnist Damian Hall took second, clocking 82 hours 25 minutes and 10 seconds – the second-fastest time ever for the course and 47 minutes inside the old record belonging to Jasmin Paris, whose husband, Konrad Rawlik, finished third in 85:47:12.
Meanwhile, French runner and 2023 female champ Claire Bannwarth arrived first female home on Thursday morning, in an incredible 92 hours, 2 minutes and 23 seconds, finishing in fifth place overall. Running five hours quicker than she did last year, she's one of the very few athletes to have defended their Spine title.
Last year's runner-up, Hannah Rickman, took second female again this year, with former pro triathlete Lucy Gossage in third.
During the closing stages of the race, the pair fought a very tight battle for second. In the end, Gossage actually reached the finish line first, however, because Rickman had stopped earlier in the race to aid another participant, she was credited her 1 hour 46 mins back and so her overall finish time (104 hours 41 minutes and 7 seconds) was quicker than Gossage's (106 hours 05 minutes and 26 seconds).
Spine Race 2024: Everything that's happened so far
On Sunday morning (14 January) at 8am, 165 participants descended on the small village of Edale in the Peak District to take on the 2024 edition of the Montane Winter Spine Race.
Widely regarded as Britain's most brutal race, the Spine takes participants on a 268-mile non-stop epic, starting in Derbyshire and finishing in Kirk Yetholm in the Scottish Borders.
This year's start list included a number of high-profile faces from the world of ultrarunning – and indeed Spine Race history – including British athlete and RW columnist Damian Hall, who won the race last year, and compatriot Jack Scott, who finished alongside Hall last year but endured a 48-minute penalty due to a navigational error. Other big names on the start line included US athlete John Kelly – who won the race in 2020 and holds the current FKT on the Pennine Way – and Briton Kim Collison, who holds a number of FKTs and high-ranking finishes at some of the world's toughest races. Not to mention Czech athlete Pavel Paloncy and Irish athlete Eoin Keith, who have both won the race three times.
In the women's race, notable faces included defending female champion Claire Bannwarth of France, Britain's Hannah Rickman, who finished second behind Bannwarth last year, and legendary British ultrarunner Nicky Spinks. Fourteen-time Ironman champion and NHS oncologist Lucy Gossage also made her Spine Race debut.
When participants set off on Sunday morning, temperatures sat at a chilly zero degrees with conditions dry underfoot.
The lead group included Kelly, Hall, Scott and Collison, alongside other notable faces, including Spanish ultrarunner Eugeni Roselló Solé, who won the Spine in 2013, Welsh mountain runner Simon Roberts and England's James Nobles – winner of the 2022 Dragon's Back Race – and mountain runner Konrad Rawlik, husband of course record holder Jasmin Paris.
Bannwarth led the women's field, followed closely by Rickman, with Elaine Bisson in third and Victoria Morris – winner of the Montane Spine Challenger in 2022 — in fourth and Gossage in fifth.
On Sunday night, the men's lead pack began to fall apart. Kelly pulled the plug at 65 miles, following a slip heading down into Lothersdale, which saw him spraining his ankle. Roberts was next to go, followed by Poloncy in the early hours of Monday morning, after grappling with a knee injury.
This left Hall, Rawlik and Collison leading the male field through Monday but, that evening, Collison also pulled the plug, exiting the race between the Tan Hill and Langdon checkpoints.
Meanwhile on Monday, Bannwarth held onto pole position, with Rickman very closely chasing her tail, with Gossage slipping into third and Spinks into fourth.
This formation remained fixed for most of the day but, on Monday night, Gossage moved into second place ahead of Rickman and Bannwarth began to extend her lead.
Hall and Scott continued to lead the men's race through Monday night and into Tuesday morning, with Rawlik chasing their tails. But as the day went on, Scott began to pull away and, by Tuesday evening, was nine hours ahead of Hall.
At this stage in the race, the weather conditions had become challenging for the runners, as they battled freezing temperatures and heavy snowfall, although conditions underfoot remained good.
Running strong throughout the night, Scott held onto his lead, reaching the finish line at Kirk Yetholm just before 9am on Wednesday morning, with Hall reaching the English-Scottish border roughly nine hours later.
Through Tuesday, Bannwarth, Gossage and Rickman continued to lead the women's field, with mere minutes separating the three women but, as the day progressed, so did Bannwarth's lead.
Overnight on Tuesday she managed to gain six hours on Gossage, which she extended to nearly nine hours through Wednesday. She finished her race around 4am on Thursday morning.
Meanwhile, Gossage and Rickman tussled for second place – their battle coming down to a thrilling conclusion on Thursday evening, as Rickman eventually took second and Gossage third.
Nicky Spinks and Elaine Bisson finished joint fourth women. The pair teamed up at the Alston checkpoint and ran the rest of the course together, reaching the finish in 111 hours 40 minutes and 56 seconds.
On the men's side, Konrad Rawlik finish third in 85 hours 47 minutes and 12 seconds, with Dougie Zinis fourth in 87 hours 48 minutes and 47 seconds – a time that would have been good enough to win five of the last eight races!
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