Victoria Wilkinson
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Victoria Wilkinson (born 19 August 1978) is an English runner and cyclo-cross rider who was a world mountain running champion at junior level and who has several times been a national
fell running Fell running, also sometimes known as hill running, is the sport of running and racing, off-road, over upland country where the gradient climbed is a significant component of the difficulty. The name arises from the origins of the English sport o ...
champion as a senior athlete.


Biography

Wilkinson displayed significant talent as a junior, winning national fell running titles at under-16 and under-18 level. She also finished second in the English Schools Cross Country Championships in 1996. At that time she was coached by her father Chris who was also a runner and cyclo-cross competitor who had won the Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross in 1972. Victoria was also advised by
Keith Anderson Keith Anderson (born January 12, 1968) is an American country music artist. Before signing to a record deal, Anderson was one of several co-writers on "Beer Run (B Double E Double R-U-N)", a duet by Garth Brooks and George Jones, released in lat ...
and others. Her most notable result as a young athlete was victory in the junior race at the World Mountain Running Trophy in
1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...
. A knee injury interrupted Wilkinson’s running career and she turned her attention to cyclo-cross, in which she competed at the
World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...
. She was a winner of the national cyclo-cross series and had four consecutive second-place finishes in the
British National Cyclo-cross Championships The British National Cyclo-cross Championships are held annually. The winners of each event are awarded with a symbolic white cycling jersey featuring blue and red stripes, which can be worn by the rider at other cyclo-cross events in the countr ...
between 2002 and 2005. She finished fifth in the
World Cup A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...
series race at St. Wendel in Germany in 2003. Some years later, despite limited experience on the type of course, she won the Three Peaks Cyclo-Cross in 2012. Around 2006, Wilkinson returned to more frequent racing as a runner. She has represented her country multiple times in both the
World Mountain Running Championships The World Mountain Running Championships (''World Mountain Running Trophy'' until 2008), is an international mountain running competition contested by athletes of the members of WMRA, World Mountain Running Association, the sport's global governing ...
and the
European Mountain Running Championships The European Mountain Running Championships is an annual international mountain running race. Inaugurated in 2002, it is organised by the European Athletic Association (EAA) in July each year. The venue for the championships is changed each year. ...
. Her results in the global championships include eleventh place in both 2006 and
2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...
. At the European level, she was fifth in
2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...
and sixth in 2015. Wilkinson won the Šmarna Gora Race in Slovenia in 2007, the victory giving her enough points to finish second overall in the World Mountain Running Association Grand Prix that year. She competed at the Commonwealth Mountain Running Championships in 2009 and 2011, finishing fifth on both occasions. She also raced cross country, finishing second in the UK Cross Challenge series in 2006-2007 and ninth at
Cinque Mulini The Cinque Mulini is an annual cross country running race in San Vittore Olona, Italy. First held in 1933, the course is unusual in that it revolves around a number of water mills along Olona river, which lend the competition its name – meaning ' ...
in 2009. In 2010, Wilkinson was first in the Yorkshire Cross Country Championships, second in the North of England Championships and fifth in the English National Championships. In the 2010s, Wilkinson has been prominent in fell running. She was the inter-counties champion in 2010. She won the
British Fell Running Championships The first British Fell Running Championships, then known as Fell Runner of the Year, were held in 1972 and the scoring was based on results in all fell races. In 1976 this was changed to the runner's best ten category A races and further changes t ...
in 2013 (jointly with Helen Fines) and 2014 (jointly with Jackie Lee) and the
English Fell Running Championships The first English Fell Running Championships were held in the 1986 season, based on results in various fell races of different lengths over the year. The winners have been as follows. *All Jeska's athletics results were declared null and void w ...
in 2013 (jointly with Helen Fines), 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017. In 2014, Wilkinson won the
Three Peaks Race The Three Peaks Race is a fell race held annually on the last weekend in April, starting and finishing in Horton in Ribblesdale. The course traverses the Yorkshire Three Peaks. The present distance is about 23 miles (37 km). The first kn ...
, thereby becoming the first woman to win both the running and cyclo-cross versions of that event. In the running version, she set a new women's course record of 3:09:19 in the 2017 race. She set a new record at the Tour of Pendle in 2017, taking thirteen minutes off the previous best women's time which had been set by
Angela Mudge Angela Mudge (born 8 July 1970) is a Scottish champion hill runner and skyrunner. Despite being born with birth defects in both legs, and finding track athletics not to her liking, she discovered her sport while a postgraduate student in Sco ...
in 1997. Wilkinson's victories in 2018 included a new fastest time at the Kentmere Horseshoe in July and a win at
Burnsall Burnsall is a village and civil parish in the Craven district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated on the River Wharfe in Wharfedale, and is in the Yorkshire Dales National Park. The village is approximately south-east from Grassington ...
in August where she broke the long-standing record which had been held by
Carol Greenwood Carol Greenwood (née Haigh; born 15 March 1966) is an English former runner who won the World Mountain Running Trophy and was twice a national fell running champion. Greenwood won the World Trophy in Morbegno in 1986. She also finished third at ...
since 1983. Wilkinson followed this with a new record of 1:43:01 in the
Ben Nevis Race The Ben Nevis Race is a mountain race that takes place annually, from the foot of Ben Nevis (the highest mountain in the British Isles) to the top, then back again. The course is 14km long and includes around 1,340metres of ascent. Up to six hu ...
and two weeks later earned the silver medal in the
Ring of Steall Skyrace Skyline Scotland is a set of annual skyrunning races which take place on consecutive days in the mountains around Kinlochleven in Lochaber. The main races are the Mamores VK, the Ring of Steall Skyrace, the Ben Nevis Ultra and the Glen Coe Skylin ...
at the
Skyrunning World Championships The Skyrunning World Championships are skyrunning competitions held for the first time in 2010 and organised by the International Skyrunning Federation. The second edition was held in 2014 and thereafter the championships have taken place on a bien ...
. In 2022, Wilkinson won the over-40 category at the World Masters Mountain Running Championships.iRunFar: This Week In Running: September 5, 2022.
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wilkinson, Victoria 1978 births Living people English female long-distance runners British female mountain runners British fell runners Cyclo-cross cyclists English female cyclists Place of birth missing (living people)