The following release featuring the U.S. Snowshoe Team is published with permission from Mark Elmore, US Snowshoe Association. Photos provided by Team USSSA.
Picos de Europa Mountains | Fuente de’, Spain – Athletes from Spain, the USA, Italy, France, Great Britain, Argentina, India, Canada, and Sweden recently attended the World Snowshoe Federation World Snowshoe Championships at Fuente de’ in the Picos de Europa mountains of central Spain. Senior athletes raced over a grueling 8.5km race course, while Junior athletes covered a tough 5km course.
Junior Men
Eliot Soderholm, a Freshman at Paul Smith’s College in northern New York State, kicked into top gear to finish 14 seconds ahead of Canada’s Nicolas Fontaine to claim his first Junior Men’s World Champion title. Akshir Singh Kush of India took the bronze.
Gold Medal/WC Title Eliot Soderholm (NY/Paul Smith’s College) 33:50
Silver Medal Nicolas Fontaine (Canada) 34:04
Bronze Medal Akshir Singh Kush (India) 1:08.23
Junior Women
Americans dominated the Junior Women’s 5km race as teammates Maine’s Amelia Van Dongen and Maddisson Tookey of Idaho claimed the Gold and Sliver medals. It is also Van Dongen’s first WC title, though not the first in her household. Amelia’s mom, Jennifer Britz, claimed the 2022 WSSF Women’s World Snowshoe Champion title in Argentina.
Gold Medal/WC Title Amelia Van Dongen (USA/ME) 47:28
Silver Medal Maddisson Tookey (USA/ID) 1:07.43
Senior Women
The Senior Women’s 8.5km race saw the USA’s Michelle Hummel of Albuquerque, NM, who won her first of two WSSF World Championship titles here in 2018, climb back on the podium with her runner-up finish to Argentina’s Veronica Galvan (WC runner-up in 2022). Georgina Gabarro Morente led the Spaniards to complete the podium.
Gold Medal/WC Title Veronica Galvan (Argentina) 57:33
Silver Medal Michelle Hummel (USA/NM) 58:33
Bronze Medal Georgina Gabarro Morente (Spain) 58:53
4th overall Moreia Hernandez Barba (Spain) 1:00.29
5th Amber Tookey (USA/ID) 1:00.47
6th Maria Florencia Milanesi (Argentina) 1:01.17
7th Monica Diaz Gavilan (Spain) 1:01.30
8th Tova Euren Magnusson (Sweden) 1:01.53
9th Veronica Tabarres Castillo (Spain) 1:02.18
10th Alicia Portilla Diego (Spain) 1:02.37
13th Jennifer Britz (USA/ME) 1:06.36
16th Sarah Canney (USA/NH) 1:09.14
17th Ellie Lochner (USA/WI) 1:09.54
22nd Stephanie Holloway (USA/MI) 1:14.41
24th Mikala Shremshock (USA/WV) 1:15.05
27th Myra Klettke (USA/OR) 1:17.45
28th Stacey Hendry (USA/CO) 1:17.45
32nd Tina-Marie Poulin (USA/NY) 1:23.48
35th Olivia Bobbie (USA/NY) 1:41.38
36th Haven Bradt (USA/NY) 1:42.09
37th Joanna Kershner (USA/NY) 1:42.21
Senior Men
The Men’s race saw Italy’s Olympian Alex Baldaccini claim his second snowshoe World title (Italy, 2013), outpacing France’s perennial favorite Stephane Ricard. Spain’s own 2020 WSSF Men’s World Champion, Roberto Ruiz Revuelta, claimed the bronze medal to complete the podium.
North America was well represented. Canada’s Julien Pinsonneault finished in 8th overall. America’s most decorated snowshoe racer, Eric Hartmark of Duluth, MN, took 13th overall while his teammate Andrew Allen of UT was right behind him in 14th. Devon Byers of MI took 20th to complete Team USA scoring.
Gold Medal/WC Title Alex Baldaccini (Italy) 44:04
Silver Medal Stephane Ricard (France) 45:54
Bronze Medal Roberto Ruiz Revuelta (Spain) 46:03
4th overall Javier Adolpho Carriqueo Inostraza (Argentina) 49:20
5th David Lopez Castan (Spain) 49:33
6th Jonatan Mora Tribaldo (Spain) 50:35
7th Eric Herault (France) 50:40
8th Julien Pinsonneault (Canada) 50:55
9th Rodrigo Eduardo Chandia (Argentina) 51:39
10th Oriol Ferre Canellas (Spain) 52:06
13th Eric Hartmark (USA/MN) 53:59
14th Andrew Allen (USA/UT) 54:45
20th Devon Byers (USA/MI) 55:58
25th Erik Barkhaus (USA/WA) 58:48
48th Zachary Sprott-Scribner (USA/NY) 1:06.45
53rd Andrew LePage (USA/NY) 1:07.17
58th Jason Reed (USA/CA) 1:08.15
62nd Logan Krahn (USA/NY) 1:09.03
65th Daniel Edelstein (USA/NY) 1:10.16
66th Chuck Tookey (USA/ID) 1:10.57
69th Eric Martin (USA/WI) 1:11.44
72nd Carson Wohlers (USA/NY) 1:12.01
73rd Wesley Burkit (USA/NY) 1:12.08
94th William Dubrevil (Canada) 1:22.45
102nd Dermot O’Connor (USA/NY) 1:29.31
104th Allan Bates (USA/MA) 1:30.33
108th Daniel Mendoza (USA/UT) 1:37.18
118th James Miner (USA/NY) 2:12.33
