2019 OCR WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Update (October 23rd): We’ve gone viral! Our video of INOV8 ambassadors Ida, Leon and Nikolaj tackling the INOV8 wall on their way to becoming World Champions in the Mixed Team Relay has amassed over 38 MILLION views. Watch it here – www.facebook.com/INOV8 run/videos/358452384863001/

What a weekend of high-octane muddy racing! The Obstacle Course Racing World Championships are a wrap for 2019 and, as the official footwear sponsor, we were proud to see so many of the world’s top athletes using our GRAPHENE-GRIP shoes to tackle the extreme conditions.

The event, which for the second year running took place at The Secret Nuclear Bunker, in Essex, UK, saw more than 3,500 athletes from 65 countries tackle 3k and 15k courses, as well as a Team Relay and the all-new 100m Sprint World Championship. A charity race on Sunday afternoon gave members of the public a chance to take on 7k of the challenging course.

INOV8 Scandinavia athletes Leon Kofoed, Nikolaj Dam and Ida Mathilde Steensgaard, all of Denmark, had a brilliant weekend of racing, becoming 2019 World Champions in the Mixed Team Relay event. Ida also went on to podium in all four of her events, while Leon and Nikolaj delivered top results in the 3k and 15k races.

INOV8 Russia ambassador Alisa Petrova and her team took second place in the World Championships Team Relay event, with Alisa also taking a top 10 spot in both the women’s 3K and women’s 15K World Champ Races.

GRAPHENE-GRIP

In 2018, our first year as the official footwear sponsor of the OCRWC, we watched proudly as athletes used our STICKY GRIP rubber to dominate the challenging courses. The X-TALON 210 (the orange rockets) were the shoes of choice for the elite runners. In 2019, we upped the ante, bringing our revolutionary GRAPHENE-GRIP MUDCLAW G 260 shoes to the OCR world stage.

200 times tougher than steel, we have infused graphene into the rubber outsoles of our G-SERIES and G-GRIP shoes, giving athletes all the benefits of sticky rubber, but now with the durability of graphene. They gave athletes the world’s toughest grip for tackling the world’s toughest obstacles.

INOV8 ambassadors and Danish athletes Nikolaj Dam and Leon Kofoed both used our Graphene-Grip shoes as they decimated the competition, becoming the 2019  World Champs in the Mixed Team Relay with teammate Ida Mathilde Steengaard, who wore her X-TALON 210’s.

THE 3K

The action kicked off on Friday morning with the 3K Short Course World Championship Race, a challenging sprint over an obstacle heavy 3-kilometer course, designed to be a pure test of speed and strength.

inov-8’s Leon Kofoed, double OCREC Short Course Gold medalist, took on the course in a pair of straight-out-of-the-box top-secret Graphene prototypes. He finished 3rd in his category, and 5th overall.

The race was won in 21min 34 seconds by the UK’s Jonathan Albon, followed by Thomas Van Tonder, of South Africa, in 22mins 13secs and Russia’s Sergei Perelygin in 22mins 19secs.

The women’s race saw INOV8 and Redbull ambassador Ida take second place in 26mins 53 secs, missing out on first place by a mere 12 seconds. Nicole Mericle, of the US, won the women’s race, with Rebecca Hammond (also of the US) taking 3rd place behind Ida, in 27mins 7 seconds.

THE 15K

The 15k World Championship Race took place first thing on Saturday morning, with both INOV8 athlete’s Nikolaj Dam and Ida toeing the line for what was set to be an extremely muddy 15-kilometer course, testing athletes to their absolute limits on obstacles that later became almost impassable in the challenging conditions.

Ida chose to tackle the event, which saw her on the podium for the second time in as many events, in a pair of STICKY GRIP X-TALON 210’s,

The race was again won by Jonathon Albon in a time of 1hour 24minutes and 18 seconds, followed very closely by Ryan Atkins of Canada in 1hour 24minutes and 57seconds. Thomas Buyle, of Belgium, took 3rd place.

The women’s race saw Ida on the podium again, taking 3rd place in 1hour 59mins and 27secs, behind winner Karin Karlsson in 1hour 54mins and 52 seconds and runner-up Katja Christensen, also of Denmark, in 1hour 56mins and 54secs.

THE TEAM RELAY

Sunday saw the action-packed Team Relay World Championship Race kick off. A high-intensity event designed to target the key disciplines of OCR: speed, strength, technique and teamwork. Teams consist of 3 athletes and the race is divided into 4 stages. Each of the first 3 stages (speed, strength and technique) is tackled by one of the athletes in a relay format before they all join together for the final section challenging their teamwork.

Team INOV8 – Denmark, consisting of Nikolaj Dam who did the speed stage, Ida Mathilde Steensgaard who did strength and Leon Kofoed who did the technique section, won the Mixed Team Relay in a time of 44mins 46seconds.

Nikolaj raced in the MUDCLAW G 260 shoes with Graphene-Grip, while Ida wore her X-TALON 210 and Leon the soon-to-be revealed new graphene shoes.

INOV8 Russia ambassador Alisa Petrova and her team consisting of Anastasia Mikhina and Natalia Gurchenkova took second place in the women’s Team Relay.

100 METER SPRINT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

New to the event in 2019, the 100m Sprint World Championship Race saw athletes battle it out over an intense 100-metre course of obstacles, designed to test their speed, agility and technique to the limit. Athletes were given two opportunities to race the 100-metre course over the weekend with their fastest time being added to the leaderboard.

South Africa’s Thomas Van Tonder took overall first place in a time of 1min 37, followed by Wojciech Sobierajski and Nikita Khaydukov. It was another great race for Ida who finished in 2mins 26seconds, to earn her 3rd place behind Katja Christensen and Karin Karlsson.

1% FOR THE PLANET 7K CHARITY OPEN

Not one of the world’s top OCR athletes but still keen to get to grips with the muddy course? The Charity Open gave members of the public the opportunity to race 7-kilometres of the World Championship course, taking on some of the toughest obstacles on the planet with the luxury of being able to skip them out without loosing their bands.

The event was hosted by Nuclear Races. Alton Sports, who stock INOV8 at their stores in southern England, were present at the event and inundated with people wanting to try Graphene-Grip footwear.

* Full results from the 2019 OCR World Championships: 100 Meter | 3km 15km Team Relay

* Related blog posts: OCRWC19 – Pre-event blog | Bringing Graphene-Grip to the OCRWC19 | Best Shoes For OCR & Mud Runs | A-Z Of Obstacle Course Racing