Author: Tomo Sarf

Over 360 athletes from 52 countries converged on Portugal for the 5th Trail World Championships last weekend. Many of these athletes arrived at the championships with impressive results from many disciplines of off-road running. Mountain runners, fell runners, sky runners, obstacle course runners, road ultrarunners and of course trail runners, all toed the starting line seeking glory on the 44 km single loop course featuring 2200 meters of climbing and descending.

While the course was primarily on mountain trails, it also featured narrow cobbled streets, a dark tunnel, stone steps, slippery wooden bridges, extremely steep muddy slopes and even sections of fast paved paths. It would take a versatile runner to conquer all these features to become the 2019 Trail World Champion.  

On race day, sunny and mild weather greeted runners who drove in from nearby Coimbra to the start / finish in the small mountain town of Miranda do Corvo. At 9:00 AM sharp, the race commenced with a small road loop in the village center to the loud cheers of assembled trail running fans. Only 1 km into the race, the dense stream of runners left the road for a climb up to the hilltop church of Igreja Matriz and into the mountains overlooking the town.

First into the 16 km aid station at Sr. Piedade located 275 meters above sea level was Christian Mathys (SUI). Christian finished 10th at the 2017 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships making his dash to the lead not unexpected. Second into Sr. Piedade was Jonathan Albon (GBR). Jonathan is the reigning Spartan World Champion and winner of three Skyrunner World Series events. Third into Sr. Piedade was defending Trail World Champion Luis Hernando (ESP). With three world champions from four different disciplines of off-road running vying for the win, the race was on!

In the women’s race, newcomer to the French team Blandine L’hirondel charged into the 16 km aid station at Sr. Piedade with a healthy 7 minute lead. After finishing 2nd earlier this year at Trail du Ventoux and Trail Drôme, Blandine didn’t look like she wanted to settle for anything other than a win. Second into Sr. Piedade was Denisa Dragomir (ROU). Denisa previously finished 3rd & 4th at the 2017 & 2018 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships. A veteran of Skyrunner World Series races, Sheila Aviles (ESP) was only 30 seconds behind Dragomir into 16 km and in a good position to help the Spanish women defend their team gold medal.

Not far behind these leaders were an impressive group of athletes with deep mountain running experience. On the women’s side, 2017 World Long Distance Mountain Running Champion Silvia Rampazzo (ITA) looked comfortable in the top 10. Also among the top runners at 16 km was 2017 Trail World Champion Adeline Roche (FRA), 2018 World Long Distance Mountain Running Champion Charlotte Morgan and 2011 World Mountain Running Champion Kasie Enman (USA). Kasie was also runner-up to Silvia at the 2017 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships.

Also among the top men through 16 km were Julien Rancon (FRA) and 22 year old Alexandre Fine (FRA), both veterans of the World Mountain Running Championships. Among the top Italians were a quartet of experienced mountain runners including 5-time World Mountain Running Champion Marco de Gasperi (ITA), 2017 World Long Distance Mountain Running Champion Francesco Puppi (ITA), 2016 & 2018 World Long Distance Mountain Running Champion Alessandro Rambaldini (ITA) and World Mountain Running Champion veteran Luca Cagnati (ITA). For those counting, that’s eight world championships!

Describing his experience early in the race for corsainmontagna.it, Puppi wrote, “The pace after the start felt blistering but soon after I decided to let the other athletes go. I had to run at my own pace and work my way up to the leaders slowly and patiently if I wanted to have any chance: that was clear since the beginning. As I expected, it was not a race I could control from the front, but rather from the back of the leading pack.”

Perhaps not what he wanted, but Puppi would go on to a strong 4th place finish moving up steadily during the race.  

Looking to improve on last year’s team silver medal, Great Britain also had mountain runners chasing teammate Jonathan Albon and close to the leaders early in the race. Andrew Davies (GBR) was 9th at the 2016 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships and 2013 Trail World Champion Rickey Lightfoot who also had strong races in the 2016 and 2018 World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships.

It wasn’t just off-road specialists who took on the trails of Portugal. Zach Ornelas (USA) came to Miranda do Corvo for his second Trail World Championship just a few months after winning the USATF 50 km Road Championships in 2:50:01. While he didn’t have a trail good race, Zach will join the worlds best ultrarunning road specialists at the IAU’s 50 km World Championships this September in Romania.

When the dust settled and the top runners crossed the finish in Miranda do Corvo, the 5th Trail World Championship broke more than participation numbers; it was the fastest in history. Men’s winner Jonathan Albon (GBR) finished in 3:34:29 – almost 50 minutes faster than the last “short” Trail World Championships in 2017. Top in the women’s race was Blandine L’hirondel (FRA) who lead from the start and finished in 4:06:17 – almost 55 minutes faster than Adeline Roche’s (FRA) victory in 2017.

Second place finishers and silver medalists were Ruth Croft (NZL) who moved up during the race and crossed the line in 4:14:28 and Julien Rancon (FRA) who also moved up during the race to cross the timing mat in 3:37:47.

Third place finishers and bronze medal winners were Sheila Aviles (ESP) in 4:15:04 and Christian Mathys (SUI) who while he dropped back from the lead, still held on for a podium spot and crossed the line in 3:40:34.

In addition to the many mountain running athletes at the championship were a number of experienced of mountain running coaches and team leaders. From the United States, Jason Bryant and Richard Bolt have raced in or coached at over 20 World Mountain Running Championship races.

The steady hands of Paolo Germenetto and Tito Tiberti have guided many Italian mountain runners to success across athletic disciplines. Paolo recently earned a coaching award from European Athletics.

Underscoring the impressive course, Tiberti said, “An ever changing course rewarded those runners who proved able to better adapt to almost schizophrenic changes: soft trail then climbing, a bridge then running fast, a jump downhill then a slow uneven rocky part, a ford and then running again, shadow in the wood and sunshine under the wind turbines… It was an unusual and exciting show where mountain runners’ speed brought both high quality and uncertainty, making it impossible to predict the race results. Team Italy got back home without medals and that’s a news, too! Not the one we hoped for, but in a developing sport environment you cannot take anything for granted and should work hard for a better future (for all). Viva la corsa in montagna e il trail!”

Needless to say, Italy is a perennial mountain & trail running powerhouse and has many medals in its future.  

Leading team Poland was WMRA Council Member Andrzej Puchacz. Andrzej has lead Poland at numerous World Mountain Running Championships and was instrumental in organizing a successful World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships at Karpacz in 2018.

Looking back at last weekend’s Trail World Championships, it was a success on many levels. For the organizers, sponsors, volunteers, teams, coaches and most importantly, the athletes. Regardless of how you label them, trail runners, mountain runners, skyrunners, obstacle course racers or ultrarunners from the roads – they all came to Miranda do Corvo ready to face the same off-road racing challenge. All are now veterans of the Trail World Championships.

Photos by Richard Bolt, Jamil Coury and Marco Gulberti. 

Complete race results can be found on this website.

Written by Smarna gora Race LOC.

This year, the International Šmarna gora Race is celebrating a historic milestone – the event’s 40th edition.

To celebrate this special occasion a specific SEARCH ENGINE has been introduced on the web page. Similar to the “WMRA World Championship results statistics”, it allows users to generate search results like:

• Results by surnames and family names (times, places, course parameters)
• Results by years and/or places (like winners by year, etc.)
• Participants by year and/or by countries, etc
• And many more interesting statistics…

Too explore this new SEARCH ENGINE and look up four decades of mountain running results, click this link. We hope that you enjoy searching the many historical statistics of the event and join us to celebrate the 40 years anniversary this October!

The WMRA Council is pleased to announce and welcome Sergio Mayayo from Spain on to the World Mountain Running Association Council as the 8th Council member and he will join the WMRA to provide a valuable resource and expertise into the World of off road running. He has been nominated by the Spanish Athletics Federation (RFEA) and the nomination accepted by the WMRA Council. His many years of experience of working on race events and in the media field will be an extremely valuable asset for the WMRA.

 Sergio has a close association with Spanish, Portuguese and South American running and will also provide a valuable resource in encouraging more events and participation from these regions.

The WMRA is very appreciative of his energy and help to carry out the work needed to develop Mountain Running. We wish Sergio a warm welcome and look forward to meeting all together for the first time soon.

Here you can learn more about Sergio’s background and his experience.

He was born 1 July 1968, in a family from Navarra in northern Spain and for the last 20 years he has been living at Cercedilla, a small mountain village at Guadarrama National Park in Central spain, at 1.200m altitude. Like so many mountaineers all over the world, Sergio has enjoyed a passion for the outdoors in many different forms: From summiting Aconcagua solo, to climbing the classic El Naranjo big wall, pedaling his way through the Santiago Pilgrim trail for 500 miles or whitewater kayaking at the Pyrenees rivers. Mountain running has been a very particular passion, with over 50 major ultras finished all over the world, from K42 in Patagonia to Leadville 100 Miles in Colorado or the well known trio at Chamonix CCC-UTMB-TDS.

He has also been an outdoor jounalist for the last 25 years, from his fist cover stoy back at 1994 to his current role as editor at Retelur media for websites such as CARRERASDEMONTANA.COM or TRAILRUNNINGSPAIN.COM, among others.

Having been most fortunate in getting to know outdoor sports and mountain running for so many years as runner, journalist & organizar over Europe, Asia, Africa and America he is now looking forward to be a part in further developing the mountain running tribe all over the World, while ensuring that the “wild soul” that makes us unique stays with us unchanged.

Jonathan Wyatt
WMRA president

Photo Credit: Sergio Mayayo at the K42 in Patagonia – in 2019 will host the World Long Distance and World Classic Distances Championships for the first time.

Weather in Casto, Italy for the Trofeo Nasego race didn’t stop athletes from running fast along the hills and mountains of Savallese. The 2019 edition of this classic mountain running event was an associate race member of the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) and will be part of our Athlete World Ranking. The race also served a national championship for Italy.

In Saturday’s vertical kilometer Andrea Mayr (Austria) won the women’s competition in an impressive course record of 38 minutes 39 seconds, going under the previous record by over 4 minutes. Nobody was able to follow her along the tough uphill course where she ran solo from start to finish. Second place went to Primitive Nyora (Rawanda) who finished in 42 minutes 38 seconds. Third place was taken by veteran mountain runner Valentina Belotti (Italy) in 43 minutes 06 seconds. Valentina was the former course record holder and became the new Italian National Champion of Vertical Kilometer and ran faster than her previous course record time.

There was a duel from the start in the men’s race between Davide Magnini (Italy) and El Housine Elazzaoui (Moracco). Running close for most of the race, it was only in second half where course that the terrain became tougher and Davide Magnini took the lead and went on to a new course record of 35 minutes 37 seconds. El Housine ElAzzaoui (Moracco) held on for second place in 35 minutes 38 seconds. Third placed went to Hannes Perkmann (Italy) who did a massive closing effort to finish in 36 minutes 13 seconds. Davide Magnini became the new Italian National Champion in the Vertical Kilometer.

On Sunday, the longer distance Trofeo Nasego race was an up and down course measuring 21.5 km. Andrew Douglas (Great Britain) surprised everyone with a fast start and took control at 2 km into the race. The Scottish runner increased his lead till 14 km clocking a maximum gap of 1 minute 25 seconds over Julien Rancon (France), Robert Surum (Kenya) and promising young talent Sylvain Cachard (France).

On hardest hill of the course, Douglas’ lead went down a little but he never worried about others coming from back. On last downhill Douglas did his best to solidify his leadership taking a massive new new course record in 1 hour 35 minutes 37 seconds. Second place for young gun Sylvain Cachard (France) who reached finish line of Trofeo Nasego in 1 hour 36 minutes 51 seconds. Third place completed a real international podium as Robert Surum (Kenya) finished in 1 hour 37 minutes 06 seconds. Fifth place overall and first Italian was former European Champion Martin DeMatteis who clocked 1 hour 38 minutes 11 seconds becoming the new Italian National Champion in long distance mountain running.

Lucy Murigi (Kenya) came to Casto to confirm her status of queen of mountain running after twice winning the World Mountain Running Championships. 2018 was a tough race for her at Trofeo Nasego due to injury but this year she strongly demonstrated 2018 was only a bad day. Lucy Murigi (Kenya) closed the 2019 race with an impressive kick to fly away from all other contenders as she ran totally alone and relaxed from the start.

By the finish Lucy won the race in new course record of 1 hour 52 minutes 23 seconds, besting second place Sarah McCormack (Ireland) who ran 1 hour 53 minutes 25 seconds. Third place went to Erica Ghelfi (Italy) who claimed the bronze medal in 1 hour 54 minutes 29 seconds and earned the Italian National Championship title.

These four course records are even more impressive due to the inclement weather and tell us how deep and talented the field was this past weekend in Casto, Italy. Proving an important race on the international mountain running scene, Trofeo Nasego now looks forward to seeing its talented finishers take on the rest of the mountain running season.

To find future mountain running races, check out our 2019 event calendar: http://wmra.ch/calendar/2019-major-events

COMPLETE RACE RESULTS:

Vertical Kilometer:
Women’s race: http://www.trofeonasegocorsainmontagna.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Femminile.pdf
Men’s race: http://www.trofeonasegocorsainmontagna.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Maschile.pdf

Trofeo Nasego 21 km:
Women’s race: http://www.trofeonasegocorsainmontagna.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TrofeoFemminile.pdf
Men’s race: http://www.trofeonasegocorsainmontagna.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/TrofeoMaschile.pdf

Photo credits D. Benedetto and M. Gulberti (for www.corsainmontagna.it). You can read Corsa in Montagna’s Italian language Trofeo Nasego race summary on their website HERE. Story written by Alberto Stretti.

The World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) has received interest from the beautiful lake district town of Ambleside located in the north of the UK.  Their bid depends on securing the financial support necessary to make these events possible.  There is local strong support from former under 18 years old (U18) participants that have moved on to success in senior races suchs World class Mountain and Marathoner Robbie Simpson and former Mountain runner and now the Worlds top triathelete Alistair Brownlee.  Both had their success motivated by their participation in the International Mountain Running U18 Cup (formerly Youth Cup).

The difficulites faced to stage quality events is a challenge that the WMRA is facing in the new technological age that while making the sport more global also brings further complications in terms of costs.  The costs of complying and safety is also increasing for the events and so the WMRA is working on ways to help and encourage event organisers.

Bringing good quality Mountain Running Championship events to fruition and the unique challenges that Mountain Events have is a feature of this related story from the IAAF here.  

We encourage people to contact the event organisers to show their support via the event website below and they would be very interested to hear from people who could contribute to the event by way of sponsorship.

Ambleside U18 Website

On 11 April the details about the upcoming Under 18 Year Old International Mountain Running Cup have been sent out to all National Athletic Federations that are members of the WMRA. The preliminary entry forms (PEF) and details about the event were included. The deadlines are 24 June for the PEF and final entry form is due on the 12 August.

 A special ceremony will take place on Sunday to remember the fallen heroes of War with a group run and lunch held on one of the high mountain fields.

More details coming soon about the race and associated events on the race website with links from: https://www.atleticasusa.it

The town of Susa has a strong historical to the U18 and Youth running.  The event was inspired by the people of Susa because every year the Memorial Marco Germanetto takes place for encouraging young runners to enjoy the sport of Mountain Running and the WMRA saw a great benefit in holding an International race for young runners.  After difficulites to find a suitable location in 2019 it is a pleasure to be able to return to the birth place of the event.

Date: 
The date is fixed for the weekend of 24/25 August with the races taking place in the evening of the 24th.

Location:
The location of Susa is in the Susa Valley in the region of Piemonte, North West Italy and it is an historical Roman town on the ancient trading route between North and South. It has a Roman Arena, aqueducts and the remnants of Roman roads and fortifications.

 Photos: Race photos courtesy from Sport di Montagna (Lanzada 2018)