2019 will be a year Joe Dugdale will never forget – the year he won both the World and European Mountain Running Championships. The 19-year-old from West Cumbria, England, triumphed in the junior men’s races at the Worlds in Patagonia, South America (see photo above by WMRA/Marco Gulberti) and the Euros in Zermatt, Switzerland, completing an all-conquering double. Not only that, he also led the Great Britain junior men to team success at both events, bagging a personal haul of four gold medals.

The modest, self-coached INOV8 ambassador and member of Cumberland Fell Runners first began running aged eight and has worked incredibly hard to become the world’s best in the Under-20s age category. Currently in the second year of a geography degree at Loughborough University, Joe took time out from his studies and training to answer our questions about a phenomenal 2019.

Patagonia was always going to be a once-in-a-lifetime trip, but it was made even more special by winning the individual and team golds. This achievement will be one that I look back on for the rest of my life with pride. It has taken a lot of years of hard training to get to this point. It’s a dream come true.

So, the race was a 7.6km long lapped course with 410 meters of climb and 500 meters of descent. It was almost all inside of a forest along mountain bike and motocross trails. This meant there were deep gullies and tree roots along the trails which made it quite technical. There was also a big river crossing!

On the day of the race, there was heavy rain that really benefitted our team as it made the course wet and softer, with pools of water on the ground. Being from the UK, me and my team-mates were more used to these sorts of conditions compared to the other teams. I was also at an advantage as my shoes (X-TALON 210) had more grip in the wet conditions than those of the Americans or fast European runners – this allowed me to be more confident on the descent.

My race plan was based on the idea that I am stronger on the climbs than the descents and, with this course being net descent, I decided I really needed to push on the climbs to give myself the biggest advantage. Being a lapped course, I chose to hold back on the first lap and push hard on the climbs of the second lap.

In practice, this worked well as I was second on the first lap and then pushed into first place on the second lap during the climb.

There were a few small mistakes, including two falls that dropped me three places on the third lap, but I worked extra hard to get back in front. I managed to do that and had enough of a lead that I was able to take the final river crossing more carefully. 

It felt great. Winning the European Championships in July and knowing how fit I was following a summer of training and racing in mountainous areas of Europe, I knew I was in a good position to get on the podium at the Worlds. I also knew there would be big competition from the Turkish, Mexican and Italian runners, and I didn’t underestimate the new athletes who were at the championships for the first time either.

I was a little concerned that I would be jet-lagged from all the travel but fortunately Argentina is only 3 hours behind the UK, so I adjusted very quickly. My legs didn’t feel great the days after the long 14-hour flight to Buenos Aires, but we had travelled with plenty of time to recover, which meant that after a few easy runs and some hill sprints they were feeling good again.

It truly is a dream come true and more than I ever thought I would achieve. I remember being so determined several years ago just to make the international team – I honestly never thought I would get this far. It was great to share the victory with the GB team, especially Matt Mackay who was on the team for both the Euros and Worlds and who also got amazing results (4th at both events).

Our teams for both the Euros and Worlds couldn’t have been any stronger and it was great to take home golds in both the individual and team categories. I’m in no doubt that the junior men’s team will be as strong next year when I move into the senior men’s category, and I’m sure they will win more team and individual medals.

I recovered with some good food after the race and then the next day I got the ski lift up to support the GB runners taking part in the World Long-Distance Mountain Running Championships. The views of the Andes were amazing – like the Argentinian Lake District! Later that night we went to the after-party and celebrated with the other teams.

So, it depends on where I am. At home (West Cumbria) I make use of all the Lake District fells and mountains on my doorstep. I love doing long runs in the big fells. I try to train six days a week, doing two hard sessions and the rest being long/tempo runs. When I’m at uni (Loughborough University) I like to do my sessions with the Loughborough Student Athletics Club as there is always a big turn out and I get pushed to run hard. Alongside the running, I try to do some yoga once a week for better flexibility and do some core work too.

It’s a challenge at uni to find any hills to train on because Leicestershire is so flat and you quickly become bored of the one hill there! Recently I have been able to go out and enjoy some races in the Peak District with the Loughborough Orienteering Club who attend races there most weekends.

I hope that next year I can qualify for the GB senior teams for European and World Mountain Running Championships. This will be a big jump up and not many people have done it in one year.

I also want to go out to Europe again to do some more mountain and skyrunning races in the summer as the standard is so good and the atmosphere is amazing. But I also want to do more fell races closer to home in the Lake District as I miss racing in The Lakes.

World Mountain Running Championships: 1 Joe Dugdale (GB) 32:44, 2 Sebih Bahar (Turkey) 32:50, 3 Yael Paniagna Morales (Mexico) 32:50.

European Mountain Running Championships: 1 Joe Dugdale (GB) 28:48, 2 Alain Cavagna (Italy) 28:54, 3 Ramazan Yorulmaz (Turkey) 28:57.

For both the World and European Mountain Running Championships Joe wore the X-TALON 210. Super-grippy, super-light and super-fast, Joe benefited from all these attributes when racing over the dry course in Zermatt and the wet route in Patagonia (photo above shows Joe’s shoes together with the individual and team golds he won at the Euros).

Launching on December 5th, the X-TALON range will be bolstered by two exciting new additions, both of which will feature our revolutionary Graphene-Grip – the X-TALON G 235 and X-TALON G 210