The two athletes that ended up knocking on the door of a TROY top five this year flexed the strength of the “mid-distance ultra-athlete,” knocking out especially strong 50-mile to 100-kilometer performances, and they even shared the same step of the podium at one of their wins this year! We are excited to celebrate all of their accomplishments with you – and if you need a catch-up on TROY thus far you can find them here: seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth.
In sixth position this year we have adidas TERREX’s Toni McCann and newly sponsored Craft athlete David Sinclair.
It’s already Toni McCann’s second year appearing in our TROY Top Ten, and to do so she had to make history in 2024. While Toni has been steadily climbing up the international ultra ranks for several years, her win at the 2023 OCC 55km skyrocketed her into the trail spotlight. Marking her as an athlete to watch. When we heard she would be stepping up in distance to run her longest race to date by doing CCC 101km as part of the UTMB World Series Finals, I think we collectively let out a huge “Heck yeah!” Winning any of the championship races is no easy feat, and walking in with a target on your back surely doesn’t make it any easier, but Toni made running her first-ever 100km look like it was just another day at the office. Easy. Taking the win in a time of 11:57 made her the 5th woman to go under 12 hours on the course, the 6th person to have a double UTMB finals title, and the 2nd person to ever go back to back for OCC and CCC titles at UTMB. History making, and we have a feeling that Toni is just getting started.
We’d be remiss not to mention that Toni ran two other races in 2024, coming away with two more victories, making her three for three for the season. She kicked off her race season with a win in June in the US at the Broken Arrow Skyrace 46km before continuing her build for CCC back in Europe, taking the victory at the La Thuile Trail Marathon in July. In baseball, they’d say, “three up, three down” and just like a Major Leauge pitcher Toni got it done flawlessly.
We asked Toni what her highlight of 2024 was and like many of us it came down to spending time with the people who make up her support system and getting to help teammates and friends reach their own goals, “The thing I will remember most when I think about 2024 is how I got to run my first 100km race with my mom and partner, Bastien, who were there to support and crew me. They will probably never understand how much their presence influenced my race. Without them and their continued support through that day and the whole block leading up to it, I would not have been able to do what I did. I attribute a lot of my success in the past years to being surrounded by people who believe in me more than I believe in myself sometimes. Another massive highlight was running with and pacing along with Dani Moreno, our friend and TERREX teammate, Yngvild Kaspersen, to her 5th place finish in her first 100 miler at the Western States Endurance Run. There is nothing so vulnerable as being with someone in that setting, and I am so grateful she asked us to be a part of that with her. It only served to solidify our friendships and how much I look up to them as people and athletes.”
From the outside looking in it’s easy to miss that David Sinclair was notably absent from the 2023 race scene, or that while his 2022 was incredibly successful, he was actually struggling with injury for much of that season after notching an incredible performance at Canyons 100km early that spring. Despite continuing to rack up wins throughout the remainder of 2022 the injuries would let up and it’s taken until this past summer for him to put all the pieces back together again. IT bands be D*#med, we are happy to have David back healthy and throwing down across a wide spectrum of races. Most impressively, while he’s been working his way back to ultra running fitness he’s moved across the country and managed to qualify himself for a nomination to the US National Skimo Team.
David’s 2024 running season kicked off where his 2022 left off, destroying everyone at mountainous 50-kilometer races. In June, he notched his first of three wins, taking home first place at the Broken Arrow Skyrace 46km after finishing 12th in the Vertical race the day before. In July, he went back to Speedgoat by UTMB 50km, where he won, besting his own winning time from 2022 by over 10 minutes, running 4:57:35, a new course record. To close out his season, David lined up at the historic JFK 50-mile in Boonsboro, Maryland for what we thought was going to be a two-man battle to the line between David and this year’s seventh-place TROY finisher Eli Hemming. Late in the race, Eli struggled with GI issues, leaving an opening for David to break away from the field. David didn’t just break away from the field, he sprinted away, running an outstanding 5:08:26 to break the course record by just over ten minutes, averaging 6:09 minute/mile pace 50+ miles. A truly heroic effort and one we won’t soon forget.
We asked David what his highlight for 2024 was and relatably is comes down to health and joy, “My highlight of 2024 was to find my joy in ultra running again. After dealing with chronic injuries for the previous two years I was able to get fully healthy, commit to my training process and fully enjoy racing.”
Toni and David have both dealt with their fair share of ups and downs the last few seasons, so getting to watch 2024 go so darn well was a joy we all got to share in. We can’t wait to watch what they both do next! Check back here tomorrow morning to see which two runners made their way into the top five.