There have been a number of tense moments on the weekend when a feminine grizzly with two cubs charged and adopted campers close to the Divide 200 race course in western Canada; fortunately, the race was safely rerouted and no racers, campers or animals have been injured. The race started Friday at Fortress Mountain Resort in Pincher Creek Municipality, Alta., 216 km south of Calgary.
Sinister Sports activities co-founder Brian Gallant issued an announcement concerning the incident:
“On Sunday, late within the night, we have been notified by native Emergency Companies of a possible bear assault close to Window Mountain Lake. We instantly started investigating the whereabouts of all our runners to find out if any have been within the space on the time of the incident. We’ve got confirmed that none of our contributors have been close to the situation. Out of an abundance of warning, we halted all runners approaching Checkpoint 8, which is positioned north of the reported space. A course diversion was carried out to totally keep away from the affected zone.”
“It seems that two campers at Window Mountain Lake have been charged and adopted by a grizzly bear and her two cubs, and each of those people have been unhurt. After being cleared to proceed the race, we opted to maintain the reroute in place, in order that we may guarantee subsequent runners weren’t being advantaged or deprived, and to make sure we stayed away from the world, provided that the bears may nonetheless be round. I wish to say how proud I’m of my crew for the way shortly and professionally they dealt with this emergency. From a administration standpoint, every little thing was almost flawless in execution.”
Race outcomes
After taking the lead at roughly 10 km into the race and never trying again, Alberta’s Keith Tougher received the race, a 200-mile (322-km) extremely alongside the Nice Divide path, which straddles the Alberta/B.C. border. His time was 60 hours, 55 minutes and 21 seconds. St. Albert, Alta.’s Brennan Fawcett was second, in 65:01:51 and Man Butson of Calgary was third, in 65:16:19.
On the ladies’s facet, Selene Mallone of Toronto took prime honours, ending in 72:31:17 for seventh total, with Lethbridge, Alta.’s Chelsey Topping in a powerful second place; on the time of publication, no different ladies had completed the course.
That is the third iteration of The Divide 200, western Canada’s first-ever 200-mile race, which incorporates the southern Rockies, and has checkpoints solely each 20 km to 40 km. Climbing a gut-busting 12,335 metres of elevation, with a time restrict of 100 hours, contributors should be extremely skilled ultrarunners, they usually really take a look at their limits within the Rocky Mountains.
Tougher received the Black Spur Extremely in 2023 and went on to win the Oldman Yard Extremely in Lethbridge, Alta., in Could 2025, after being the help to winner Matthew Shepard at Oldman final 12 months.
On the time of publication, there have been nonetheless 22 runners within the race.
For full outcomes, click on right here.
