Shaun Stephens-Whale has qualified and will be heading to Italy this weekend for the World Mountain Running Championships. The race is scheduled for Sept. 14.
The venue Casette di Massa is located at the foot of the Apuan Alps in Tuscany region of Italy. The race will go through an active marble quarry ascending and descending the local mountains over a 16-km distance.
After a great season of preparation and carefully chosen races, Stephens-Whale has found himself in a position to do well in Europe. Mountain running is a big sport in Europe often watched by thousands of spectators. Sponsors, prize money and extremely competitive racing make this tough for the runners with even a 40th place hard to achieve.
Stephens-Whale has been living and training with Kriss Swansen, Canada’s number one mountain runner, for the last two years. Together they have put good quality miles behind them.
Stephens-Whale has also dabbled in cycling, riding with the Russ Hayes group for some time. His hill rides with the group have been phenomenal, at times breaking away with the current time trial champion and making everyone suffer behind him.
His racing achievement have him winning all Five Peaks races this year, as well as setting a new record, 1:23:37 for the Seek the Peak race in June, Ambleside to the top of Grouse Mountain and down to the Lodge. His time up the Grouse Grind in that race had him at 31:12. He still had to top Grouse and run back down again.
Working on top of Observatory Hill in Saanich for the National Research Council, he is doing research for a co-op position and has completed his third year in astrophysics.
