If competitive mountain running has suffered from its own hardy reputation over the years – bone-crushing, back-bending, leg-breaking etc – then Luke Weldon is making it his mission to ease some of the fears or feelings of inaccessibility.At 21, Weldon has become one of the top exponents of mountain running in the country. No easy feat, given it has traditionally been no sport for young men, or young women, but more the seriously seasoned endurance athlete. Weldon believes Ireland is punching well below its weight on the international stage, especially given the wide breadth of natural training arenas around the country.“I don’t think very many people even know about the performance side of the sport,” he says, “and that there are a lot of us trying to push to get Ireland on the map. Like all these things, maybe all you need is a big result from someone in a world or European level, then people realise, ‘oh wow, we can be good at this.’”At the end of March, Weldon won the Maurice Mullins 50.5km through the heart of the Wicklow Mountains, considered one of the hardest races in the country, beating many Irish runners with far weightier reputations. It also sealed his selection for this weekend’s European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships in Slovenia.This event has undergone a few reputational revisions over the years, European Athletics now calling it “off-road” instead of mountain running. There are also now three different race distances at senior level for men and women: the straight uphill race (8.9km), the uphill and downhill race (13.1km), and the trail race (52km).Weldon specialises in the trail race, and last year became the youngest Irish senior international in the sport at 20 when he made his debut at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain. “It took me a bit of time to find that I am better at the longer stuff,” he says. “I’m a bit unique in that way, going for the longest distances when I’m still young.“And for my race, maybe the pain is more the mental side, because you’re out there for four hours, and it’s a long time to stay focused. There are times during 50km you don’t want it to be all out max effort, so it’s about managing your effort a lot more.“And there are no runs that are the same. Even if you’re on the same route, and conditions, things can fall in the trails that you’re avoiding, or you could pick a different line of descent every time. But I also just appreciate being outdoors, in the mountains, appreciate that side of nature.”Part of that appreciation comes from where he grew up and still lives, in Kilmacanogue in Co Wicklow – “in between the big and middle Sugar Loaf” – with easy access to a great variety of training grounds.Although he also dabbled in plenty of team sports when attending Temple Carrig School, in Greystones, it took the pandemic for the pleasures of running to fully reveal themselves when, like many people, he took to the open road as a simple means of escape. “There is something about running downhill very fast that it gives you a thrill like nothing else. It can be as challenging as you want to make. And now, when I am out in the mountains, you do see so many more people out running.”Although Weldon will be one of the youngest competitors in the trail race this weekend, the Irish team does include several seasoned veterans, including Sarah McCormack in the women’s uphill and downhill race, who at 39 is a former World Cup mountain running series winner. Former Irish marathon champion Sergiu Ciobanu, now 42, also goes in the men’s race.