A dominant Engadine native and a fleet-footed Frenchman take home the two sets of ibex antlers of the Engadin Skimarathon 2023. 23-year-old Giuliana Werro raced in front of her competitors for almost two-thirds of the distance; by the finishing line in S-chanf, her lead had clocked up 27.5 seconds. Last year's winner Nadja Kälin from St. Moritz took second place, and Anja Weber from Hinwil (ZH) came in third.

For Giuliana Werro, who lives in Zernez, just a few miles away from the finish, it was the third Engadin Skimarathon. She burst into tears of joy the minute she stepped over the finishing line. «I had always dreamt of winning this race one day. To now see it come true is just incredible.»

26-year-old Frenchman Arnaud Chautemps is a first-timer at the Engadin Skimarathon. He maintained his place among the top ten throughout the race. On the last mile, he manoeuvred himself into an advantageous position for the final mass sprint in which he gained the victory, a mere 0.4 seconds ahead of his best pal Tom Mancini (France) and 0.6 seconds ahead of Jason Rüesch from Davos (CH). The top ten in the ranking crossed the finishing line within 2.2 seconds of each other.

The race had its fair share of hiccups, remarked Chautemps after the race. Racing with hole-tip skis, poles from competitors got caught in the front openings repeatedly, right after the start and on the last miles, tearing the ski tips. The severed skis, however, did not keep him from coming out on top in the final sprint. He was full of praise for the event's trail grooming team: «They did a magnificent job. In a winter in which we had almost all races cancelled, here at the Engadin Skimarathon, we were presented with a wide track in good condition to race on.»

Grooming the 43.5 kilometres of cross-country trail from Maloja to S-chanf had posed a challenge ahead of the race. Even though the Engadine had enjoyed superb cross-country and alpine skiing slopes since November, a spell of warm weather in the Alps had made it tricky to prepare the tracks on Lakes Sils and Silvaplana and the stretch between St. Moritz and Lake Staz. The top layer of ice on the frozen lakes had been grated and mixed in with the natural snow to prepare a compact base. In St. Moritz, the course traversed the lake, a first in the marathon's history; it then led racers up to Lake Staz along two inclines, which created a bottleneck as the organisers had only been able to prepare tracks a few metres wide on this section.

Press release of the Engadin Skimarathon (12 march, 2023)

Christian Gartmann has been mandated with communications and media work for the Engadin Skimarathon since 2014. It is the biggers cross country ski event in the Alps.