World trail running champion Caroline Chaverot, in Hong Kong for first time, talks about what drives her
Mother of three who took up trail racing just four years ago, and who’s part of an elite field in Sunday’s MSIG Lantau 50, says she’s not the fastest runner but has ‘a very strong will’ and never gives up
Closing in on the final gate of the kayak slalom competition, Caroline Chaverot was confident she had her Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games qualification spot for the Swiss team in the bag. A split second later, her dreams were dashed when she somehow narrowly missed the final checkpoint. Devastated, Chaverot, then 20, swore never to take part in competitive sport again.
Fast forward 20 years and Chaverot is winning some of the world’s most prestigious trail running ultramarathons. In the past 18 months she has dominated the women’s competition, claiming victories in numerous big races including July’s Skyrunning World Championships (105km) in Spain, the 168km Ultra Trail Mont Blanc (UTMB) – considered the World Cup of ultrarunning – in September, and the 2016 IAU Trail World Championships (85km) in Portugal in October, days after her 40th birthday.
In Hong Kong for the first time this week, in-form Chaverot is undoubtedly the favourite for Sunday’s MSIG Lantau 50, a 54km trail race around Lantau Island that doubles as the International Skyrunning Federation’s Asian Skyrunning Championships.
Chaverot spearheads a star-studded field that includes France’s Ludovic Pommeret, men’s champion of the 2016 UTMB, Spain’s Cristofer Clemente (2016 Skyrunner Ultra Series champion), Frenchman Nicolas Martin (men’s runner-up at the IAU World Trail Championships) and Julien Chorier (2012 Ultra Trail Mount Fuji champion) and Nepal’s Samir Tamang, the defending Asian Skyrunning champion.
