When the director of the Golden Trail Series, Grégory Vollet, arrived in Kobe in search of a route worthy of the most pedigree circuit in the world, he only saw skyscrapers and the road that led him to the viewpoint of a national park. “There will be nothing here,” he assumed. And this was his last asset in Japan. But when he went into the forest, he discovered a treasure. One of the most technical routes imaginable, without a flat meter, with brutal slopes, slippery stone, roots, stairs and even snakes. That is why the motto of Kobe Trail, which opens the season this Saturday, is The unexpected. Like the arrival of the trail caravan to Asia, a large market with exotic nooks and crannies that you see for the first time.

The trail, designed by Italians, French or Spanish, has added territories. Europe is the epicenter of a sport that is growing unchecked in the United States and attracting African long-distance runners. Asia is the place to explore, which is why this year the Golden calendar goes from six events to eight. After Kobe, it continues on April 27 in the Chinese region of Sichuan, at the foot of Tibet, with the Four Sisters Mountain Trail, the altitude challenge that starts at 3,200 meters in altitude and approaches 4,500. Behind it is the Chinese property of Salomon, the organizer of the circuit. And the search for Asian stars. “If this year we have five in the elite, maybe next year we will have ten and the next year, 15,” Vollet hopes.

Your challenge is to update a calendar that maintains classic events such as the Zegama–Aizkorri, the Mont-Blanc Marathon and Sierre Zinal while exploring the Polish Tatras before saying goodbye to the course with two fast American-style races (San Francisco and Mammoth Lakes). . The icing on the cake will be the final, in Locarno (Switzerland). The requirement to participate in it is to run in four of the eight events, with a very different nature, both in distance—from 20 to 42 kilometers—and in elevation or technical complexity. Each athlete traces his or her itinerary.

Kobe uncorks the season without last year’s two winners. In the absence of Remi Bonnet, winner last year in the Dolomites and in the final, Elhousine Elazzaoui aspires to the throne with the permission of the two Kenyans – Philemon Kiriago and Patrick Kipngeno – or the Swiss Roberto Delorenzi. The great Spanish asset, Manuel Merillas, winner in Zegama last year, is reserved for the Basque marathon in May, and leaves the delegation in the hands of Álex García, Miquel Corbera or Alain Santamaría. The Leonese misses that unexpected gem of Kobe, with the technical descents that he likes so much. Like the Japanese Ruy Ueda, who has trained the profile in detail and promises to defend national pride.

Japan wields the mountains as part of an ancient culture, but when the groups of schoolchildren running through the national park see the runners passing by, they are amazed and offer a smile that conveys admiration and madness. The country’s mountain races cross the summit roads, the highways; They did not contemplate entering the labyrinth of medium heights, those extreme slopes on narrow paths.

Allie McLaughlin summarized the risks posed by the route with the organization’s recommendation that each athlete take out insurance in case “some catastrophic injury occurs.” The American is one of the favorites in an open panorama without the three dominators of 2023. She will not race her compatriot Sophia Laukli, winner of the series, due to injury. Neither does the Swiss Judith Wyder, second, nor the Romanian Madalina Florea, the great revelation. So it is an open panorama for the Spanish, consolidated in the second step. Malen Osa, who touched the podium last year, or Sara Alonso, who shone in 2022 and has left last year’s injury behind. The largest delegation of all includes Julia Font, Marta Martínez, Rosa Lara Feliu and Naiara Irigoyen.

It all starts in the city of red meat, with its themed restaurants and chefs who turn every sheet of garlic. More than 400 local runners will accompany the fight of the international elite in a test that starts at 1:00 p.m. (6:00 a.m. in Spain) to facilitate monitoring from Europe. The women will leave earlier so that both winners arrive at the same time to that tourist viewpoint where Vollet was waiting for a wasteland, which serves as the start, finish line and crossing point. As in traffic, the direction changes and the runners, who usually move to the right to be overtaken, will have to move to the left when they hear the whistle. The unexpected begins.

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