French runner captures Cappadocia crown

NEVŞEHİR

French runner Yannick Noel broke ribbon in Turkey's Salomon Cappadocia Ultra Trail on Oct. 19.    

The 33-year-old athlete finished the trail race at the first place in 11 hours 12 minutes 7 seconds, defeating 442 others in the 119-kilometer (74 miles). Thus, he broke the course record with running 27 seconds faster.     

The Salomon Cappadocia Ultra Trail has a variation in altitude of more than 3,730 meters winding through plateaus, valleys and hills overlooking unique "fairy chimney" volcanic cones of Cappadocia, listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site.     

Athletes ran in three different courses; ultra (119-kilometer or 74-mile) with a variation in altitude of 3,730 meters, medium (63-km or 39-mile) with 2,030 m, and short trail (38-kilometer or 23.6-mile) with 1,120 m.     

In medium trail, Irem Can Ayaz from Turkey came first in 5 hours and 50 minutes.     

In the short trail, Serhii Popov from Ukraine finished the race in 2 hours and 51 minutes.      

In ultra trail, Australian Lou Clifton, the runner-up of Ultra-Trail Mt. Fuji 165K (102-mile) in women's category, won the race in 12 hours and 41 minutes.     

In medium trail, Belgium athlete Manuela Soccol finished the race in 6 hours and 11 minutes.     

In short trail, another Ukrainian athlete Olha Havlytska came first 3 hours 43 minutes.     

The sixth iteration of the race welcomed 2,650 runners, 55% of whom were foreigners from 80 countries.     

Cappadocia region was formed by millions of years of natural phenomena -- erosion of soft layers of lava and ash from volcanic mountains around the region composing with wind and rain.     

It is also famous for its colorful fresco paintings covering underground cities, boutique hotels, houses carved into rocks, rock churches, chapels, and shelters used by early Christians.