Palmer’s Coby Marvin. Photo courtesy of International Skyrunning Federation
Sixteen-year-old Coby Marvin of Palmer continued his impressive campaign by winning two medals at the Youth Skyrunning World Championships in L’Aquila, Italy.
Marvin, the two-time Mount Marathon Race junior champion, earned the only medals for the United States in the competition that featured athletes from 31 countries ranging in age from 15-23 years old.
Competing as one of the younger racers in the Youth B Division on August 4, Marvin won a silver medal in the Vertical Race by completing a 3.8-kilometer course with nearly 3,400 vertical feet of climbing in 41 minutes, 56 seconds. That ranked Marvin second only to Lluis Palacios of Spain (37:54).
On August 6, Marvin also placed 8th in the Sky Race (13K with 4,200 feet of climbing) in 1:41:06.
Those two combined results earned Marvin a bronze medal in the overall Youth B standings.
In addition to Marvin, Alaska was well represented at the 7th annual championships.
Wasilla’s Josh Taylor. Photo by Ian Corless.
Josh Taylor of Wasilla captained the 14-member United States team and had the honor of carrying the flag at the opening ceremonies.
Taylor placed 27th in the Vertical Race in 46:26 and 35th in the Skyrace U23 men’s division in 3:07:31.
Sophie Wright of Palmer finished 8th of 21 in the Skyrace U23 women’s division in 3:31:48
Sophia Mayers of Anchorage finished 12th of 16 in the Skyrace C division in 4:12:49.
Mayers and Taylor also represented the U.S. at the 2022 championships in Andorra.