Charlotte Love named as amateur athlete from the UK for Team Northern Europe in annual ‘ASICS Beat The Sun’ event following over 8,000 applications
ASICS has announced the 15 amateur athletes from around the world who will be taking part in the annual ‘ASICS Beat the Sun’ challenge, which returns to Chamonix on June 21st, the longest day of the year.
Loughborough University Student Charlotte Love, aged 23 from Ascot will join Team Northern Europe alongside fellow amateurs Finn Volger (Germany), Benjamin Druml (Austria) and pro athletes Holly Rush, Christian Schiester and Lukas Naegele.
With ‘Beat the Sun’, ASICS wants to give everyday people the chance to experience the different worlds of running and in doing so inspire a wider audience of people to take on a unique challenge and surpass themselves.
The opportunity to work together with pro runners as part of a team saw over 8,000 amateur runners across the globe apply to take part in ‘ASICS Beat the Sun’, which will see five continental teams relay race around Mont Blanc, the highest peak in Western-Europe.
Each team, made up of 3 pro athletes and 3 amateurs, will need to relay across three countries – France, Italy and Switzerland – as they attempt to complete the course in the hours between sunrise and sunset. This gives them precisely 15 hours, 41 minutes and 35 seconds to cover 148km course and ‘beat the sun’.
Brit Charlotte Love, a keen amateur runner with a love of big challenges and new experiences, has begun training for the event alongside Team Northern Europe. UK athlete Holly Rush will act as Charlotte’s mentor over the coming months as they train to prepare for the challenge to ‘Beat the Sun’.
Charlotte is also receiving dedicated training and support from the ASICS Trail Team to ensure she is prepared for the challenge that lies ahead in the unique terrain, altitude and elevation of Mt. Blanc.
Charlotte Love, UK amateur athlete commented: “I’m extremely excited to be involved in ‘ASICS Beat The Sun’ and running alongside so many well-known athletes will be incredible. I started running after I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lyphoma as a way to keep healthy and do something for myself. It carried on from there and I have been looking for more extreme challenges to do. This came along at the right time and it will be great to have the opportunity to inspire others to get outside and run”.
Holly Rush UK pro athlete and mentor commented: “I can’t wait to get back on to the trails of Mont Blanc, it was one of my highlights from my racing season last year. The race had such a great atmosphere, even though we just missed the sun by seconds, the team spirit was high and we all knew we had achieved something great. I’m looking forward to taking Charlotte under my wing and helping her with her training for this year’s event. Team Northern Europe are looking strong, I think we are in contention for a win!”
On June 21st, the athletes will face 8,370 metres of crippling ascent – the equivalent to tackling Mount Everest – as they take on a wide array of terrains including road, trail, downhill and alpine sections. The athletes will have to deal with inclement weather conditions ranging from scorching heat to freezing cold temperature, fierce winds, rain and snow, pushing participants to their limits.
The course passes through some of Europe’s most breath-taking yet challenging scenery including the Notre Dame de la Gorge in Courmayeur and the Swiss valley of Champex Lac which combines thick forest, glaciers and fiery torrents.
The route is divided into sections with each athlete completing two sections of between 3km-19km each across varied altitude and terrain.
A dedicated TV-documentary about the challenge – to be broadcast globally in late 2015 – will be created by award winning production company Sunset & Vine. This follows the success of the ‘ASICS Outrun the Sun’ documentary in 2014 which was broadcast in over 15 countries worldwide.
As part of the challenge, ASICS is partnering with Strava to give amateur runners around the world the chance to take part. ASICS and Strava have created a dedicated ‘ASICS Beat the Sun’ challenge on the app. The Strava ‘Beat the Sun’ challenge will run for 3 weeks prior to the event and will give users the chance to complete a 148km course in their area by June 21st, the longest day of the year.
The professional athletes representing each team are as follows:
- Team Northern Europe: Holly Rush (UK), Christian Schiester (Austria), Lukas Naegele (Germany)
- Team Southern Europe: Emmanuel Gault (France), Genis Zapater (Spain), Xavier Chevrier (Italy)
- Team Americas: Megan Kimmel (USA), Iazaldir Feitoza (Brasil), David Le Porho (Canada)
- Team Africa: Dawid Visser (South-Africa), Kidane Tidesse (Eritrea)
- Team Asia-Pacific: Kota Araki (Japan), Andy Neo (Singapore), Pete Jacobs (Australia)