The second day of the new Championships, which combine mountain and trail running, saw the senior trail races held over a distance of 47 kilometres, or just over 29 miles.

Du Chapois took the honours in the men's race in a time of 3hr 43min 01sec, with French athletes following him home.

Arnaud Bonin took silver in 3:43:55 and Thomas Cardin won bronze in 3:45:42, with another French runner, Kevin Vermeulen, fourth in 3:46:00.

L’Hirondel, winner of the women's event at the 2019 Trail World Championships and bronze medallist in the same year's World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships, finished almost seven minutes clear in 4:11:22.

Silver went to Spain’s Nuria Gil in 4:18:16, with third place going to Mathilde Sagnes of France in 4:28:42 and Britain’s Eleanor Davis finishing fourth in 4:28:50.

The final day of competition tomorrow involves four events - the men's and women's under-20 and senior versions of the up-and-downhill mountain race.

Andy Douglas, the two-time Mountain Running World Cup champion, today revealed he would miss the competition after testing positive for COVID-19.

His team-mate and 2019 European uphill champion Jacob Adkin, was only released from quarantine the day before competition, finishing 29th in his title defence.