It’s all change on both the male and female leaderboards this month; with strong competitions happening all across Europe and America, every single athlete this month has fought for and earned their spot, showing both the caliber of athletes and the quality of competitions out there right now.
For the first time this season, we have a perfect score; after her stunning performance at the Euro Championships, as well as her 1st place spot at Nordic Race, Ida Mathilde Steensgaard (DEN, 1) has moved up 3 places to again claim the top spot, with all judges unanimously ranking her their number one pick this month, giving her a perfect score of 15. Also, though not a perfect score, Thomas Buyle (BEL, 1) has rocketed to the men’s top spot after a big win in the Euro Championships 15k and first place at the OCR Series Wijchen.
No change in the number two spot on either scoreboard with Lindsay Webster (CAN, 2) with 13.6 pts and Ryan Atkins (CAN, 2) with 12.6 pts, holding steady after both taking 1st place at the Spartan Beast in Montreal, a series event, with Webster also claiming victory at Spartan Puebla in Mexico, and 2nd place at the Minotaur Sky Race, proving once again she is an all-round athlete.
Kris Rugloski (USA, 3) has also had an incredible month, earning her 12.8 pts and third place, after another Savage win, 2nd place at Spartan Puebla (a series event), and 3rd place in the OD 100, her first 100 miler of the year.
Dutch athlete Jesse De Heer (NL, 3) continues to impress after strong performances at the European championships, with Veejay Jones (USA, 4) hot on his tail after taking first place at Spartan Puebla.
UK’s Nicki Johnson (UK, 6) has moved up one spot with a gold and silver podium at the Wales Spartan Super & Beast. Also moving up one place each are Ulrikke Evensen (DEN, 4), Janka Pepova (SVK, 5), and Maud Desouter (BEL, 7).
The male board sees three new entries, from UK’s Jason Brunnock (UK, 8), Italy’s Manuel Moriconi (IT, 9), and Canada’s Samuel Hebert (CAN, 10) for strong performances at Spartan events across Europe, UK, and Canada.
