Author: wmra_wp

“On Sunday, June 29, a record 17 nations participated (96 runners in total) in the 9th WMRA International Youth Cup in Arco, Italy, hosted by Castle Mountain Running/Garda Trentino.
The athletes, ages 16 and 17, raced over a varied course starting in the town square.
It was a unique event including cobblestones on the pathway, numerous steps on the ascent toward the 12th century castle, grassy terrain, steep descents, and dirt pathway through olive groves.
Six nations had athletes with medals: France with two gold and one silver and Italy with two gold and one brone were the leaders of this event. Russia and Turkye won one silver and one bronze each, then Bulgaria took one silver and England won one bronze.
It was a very challenging course with the girls running nearly 4 kilometers, and the boys nearly 5 kilometers.”
“In the girls race, the early lead went to Burcu Subatan (TUR) who was first to reach the flat grassy section just beyond the one kilometre mark. But the course did not stop climbing here. Subatan lead up the roadway toward the castle and more steps and then on the descent, a few of the chase runners – Elsa Racasan (FRA), Tatiana Ivanaeva&nbsp, (RUS), Sinaida Antonova (RUS) started to gain ground.
Coming out of the forest, Racasan took the lead and crossed the finish line in Arco timed in 19:43. Second was Ivanaeva in 19:55, while Subatan was third in 20:02. There were 48 finishers in the girls race (49 at the start).
In the team competition, France won gold with 30 points followed by Bulgaria with 33 points and Russia 1 with 35 points.
The men&rsquo,s competition also saw a runner from Turkey leading after the first climb. This runner was Abdullah Yorulmaz. But on the descent, Yorulmaz, with a 10 second lead, missed a turn and Davide Magnini overtook him and increased the lead. Yorulmaz was not strong on the descent and even though he made it back on course quickly, he was overtaken by six more runners and ended up in eighth position.
Magnini was cheered by the home town crowd as he finished more than 30 seconds in front of the second runner. Magnini was timed in 21:29 followed by Pierre Xolin (FRA) in 22:07, and Samuele Nava (ITA) in 22:08. There were 47 runners in the boys race.
In the team competition, Italy scored 13 points to take gold, Turkey won the silver medal with 36 points and the English 1 team received the bronze with 38 points (same points of Bulgaria, fourth).
Opening the competition on Saturday evening was a parade of nations and entertainment from a local band and majorettes from the region.
It was a wonderful weekend of mountain running and the weather cooperated for most of the events, although rain started soon after the junior boys began their race and continued for a few hours.
From the FIDAL, Sergio Baldo, from the LOC, president Franco Travaglia, and joining the delegation for the WMRA were president Bruno Gozzelino, Raimondo Balicco, honorary member and technical delegate at Arco, honorary member Pierre Weiss (FRA), Tomo Sarf (SLO), Wolfgang Munzel GER), Andrzej Puchacz (POL), and Nancy Hobbs (USA).
At the WMRA Congress in Casette di Massa in September, a name change to Youth Championships will be considered.
The venue for the 2015 Youth International Cup will be announced in September, also at the WMRA Congress meeting.

&nbsp,

Edited from Nancy Hobbs (WMRA)

Source of the pictures:
On front page (from LOC):
&nbsp,- boys team podium,
On second page: (from LOC):
– girls individual podium,
– girls team podium,
– boys individual podium.

“

“On 29th June, the 9. WMRA International Youth Cup will be back in Italy for the edition 2014, hosted by the Castle Mountain Running Arco, Trentino.
The race is organized by Garda Sports Events at its fourth edition and in the previous years the race&nbsp, has been able to achieve considerable appreciation for its fascinating course and technically highly significance.
The first great result of the 2014 edition of the WMRA Youth Cup, regards the numbers of nations&nbsp, registered&nbsp,&nbsp, 17, with&nbsp, regard to the International event reserved for youth under 18: it is record!
The other good news is that among these nations are&nbsp, the United States,&nbsp, before today they never&nbsp,&nbsp, took part in the Youth Cup.
The full list of nations&nbsp, that have completed their registration includes in addition to Italy and the United States also Bulgaria, Czech Republic, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Russia, San Marino, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Turkey and&nbsp, Wales.”
“

These teams&nbsp, will compete on the racing track from Arco (only 91 meters above sea level) and&nbsp, leads to the tower called&nbsp, Renghera that dominates Alto Garda from the top of the fortress that houses&nbsp, the Castle of Arco. From there it descends to a thriving olive grove which offers the second&nbsp, climb of the day before diving towards to the center of town.
It is not easy to indicate the favorites also for the young age of the runners: certainly the competition will be very interesting with one hundred aathletes at the start!
The race track of the Youth Cup will be broadcasted in live-streaming on the site of the event: www.castlemountainrunning.com thanks to technologies made available by Trentino Network.
This Arco weekend&nbsp, will start in the afternoon of Saturday, June 28 with the opening ceremony, the parade of nations and ends with the Gala evening dinner.
The Sunday will start with the national competition named &ldquo,Trophy of the Regions&rdquo, a race reserved to the Italian regional under 16 , followed then by the two races valid for the WMRA Youth Cup.
The town of Arco (about 18 000 inhabitants) is&nbsp, a well&nbsp, known tourist locations, famous since 1800 to be the A lot of Sport Authorities from CONI, FIDAL and WMRA together political Italian representant will attend to the event.
destination of the noble of the Austrian Empire. In sports Arco is famed&nbsp, for hosting the Rock Master, an international climbing event&nbsp, and for being the heart of the cycle-racing Giro del Trentino.
Even though&nbsp, being at a low altitude, Arco is surrounded by mountains and the&nbsp, area has become the home of the climbers while the nearby Lake Garda is&nbsp, a very popular location for the windsurfers and sailing area.

&nbsp,

Edited from Franco Travaglia (LOC Gardasports)

Source of the pictures:
&nbsp,On front page (from LOC):
&nbsp,- logo of the event
&nbsp,On second page: (from LOC):
&nbsp,- cover of the brochure.

“

“On June 14, there were 305 runners representing 18 countries in the 5. EVAA European Master Mountain Running Chmpionships 2014 in Ludwikowice Klodzie, a ski village in the middle part of Sudety Mountains in southwest Poland.
Among the competitors were runners who had also participated in the WMRA WMA World Masters Mountain Running Championships, and there were also many newcomers from the other EVAA veteran events. Some of the participants had road and track backgrounds.
Participants from nine countries won medals.
Gold medals were awarded to participants from eight different countries.
Germany led the individual medal count winning 6 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze, followed by Czech Republic with 4 gold, 3 silver and 4 bronze, and Poland with 3 gold, 6 silver and 5 bronze. Italy won 3 gold medals, while Austria, Spain and Ireland each won one gold medal. Austria also added a silver, and Spain a bronze. Scotland took one silver and one bronze, while France had one silver medalist.
In the team classification, Poland was first with 7 gold 2 silver and 1 bronze, followed by Germany with 5 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze. Czech Republic was third in the team medal count with 7 silver and 2 bronze, Spain finished fourth with 1 silver, and Ukraine was fifth with one bronze.
This was the first time Spain participated in the event.
”
“There was a tough fight in W35 between Anna Celinska (POL), last year&rsquo,s bronze medalist at the World Long Distance Challenge, and Birgit Unterberger (GER), the silver medalist at the World and European Trophies of 2000 and gold medalist in last year&rsquo,s World Masters Mountain Running Champoinship in Janske Lazne. Celinska outdistanced Unterberger to win her first masters&rsquo, title. In third place was Renata Hajkova (CZE), silver medalist in Janske Lazne.
Monica Carl (GER), bronze last year in Janske Lazne, easily won the W40 division.
In W45, Spanish runner Maria Gracia Coll Constans bested well-known Susan Ridley from Scotland.
In W50, Irmi Kubicka (AUT) led the way and ended up with the fourth fastest time of the race among all masters women.
In the W55 division, Marie Hynstova (CZE), seventh in Janske Lazne, was the winner with Uschi Bergler, 6th jn Janske Lazne in second place.
There was no problem for six-time World Masters winner Blanka Paulu (CZE) to earn the European title in W60. In second place was Alicja Sikora (POL) who also finished second in Janske Lazne.
Newcomer to mountian running, Irmgard Olma (GER), won the W65 division while Barbara Prymakowska (POL) won the W70 division.
Mark Ryan (IRL), member of Irish, European and World Championships Teams, was first to the finish line in the M35 division, followed by Piotr Kon (POL), who finished sixth in Janske Lazne and is still a member of the Polish Long Distance Team.
In M40, Giuseppe Antonini (ITA), last year&rsquo,s world champion also won the European title while last year&rsquo,s vice-champion Jindrich Kral (CZE), finished in second place in European competition. In first place Denis Mietsch (GER), eighth in Janske Lazne, while third in Janske Lazne Bjorn Geerdink (NED) finished sixth.
It was an easy victory for Martin Vecek (CZE) in M45 after his 13th place finish in Janske Lazne last year in M40.
M50 winner was Franco Torresani, winner of two gold, four silver, and three bronze during World Masters Championships. Silver medal went to Juergen Scherg (GER), 3rd in Janske Lazne.
M55 winner was Franz Prager, third in Janske Lazne, who was just five seconds ahead of Milos Smrcka (CZE) and 11 seconds ahead of Frantisek Kolinek (CZE). Finisher on the 29th place in this age group was Kurt Kaschke (GER), EVAA President.
M60 winner was Krzysztof Borowski (POL), vice-champion in World Masters 2010, while last year&rsquo,s World Champion Tadeusz Jasek (POL) took fourth.
M65 was won by Livio Donadoni (ITA),&nbsp, with Wolfgang Nehring (GER), 6th in Janske Lazne, in second place.
M65 winner was Peter Leszkow (GER) and M75 winner was&nbsp, Georg Cross (GER).
&nbsp,
The Championships&rsquo, course was held on a 9,4 km +600 m &ndash, 30 m track with the finish on the top of Wielka Sowa, 1015 m above sea level.
The event was efficiently organised by Cultural Centre of Nowa Ruda Municipal, and all participants expressed their satisfaction with the venue, organisation and atmosphere.

&nbsp,

All results, including open race:
http://www.online.datasport.pl/results1181/wyniki/01_ME_RESULTS_AGE.pdf

Edited from Andrzej Puchacz (WMRA)

Source of the pictures:
On front page:
– Anna Celinska, W35 winner
On second page:
– Blanka Paulu, W60 winner,
– Franco Torresani, M50 winner.

“

“The 19th edition of the WMRA Newsletter is now available online in .pdf version.
The newsletter includes a recap of the 2013 mountain running season including results, photographs and reports from the World Mountain Running Championships, the International Youth Cup, the WMRA Grand Prix, the WMRA World Long Distance Challenge, the Area competitions (including the NACAC and EAA and AAC and CONSUDATLE&nbsp, Mountain Running Championships), the WMA World Masters Mountain Running Championships, the EVAA European Championships, and more including the Balkan Championships, and more.”
Highlighted are WMRA sponsors and supporters along with welcome letters from IAAF President Lamine Diack and WMRA President Bruno Gozzelino.
Contact information for the WMRA Council is also provided in the text.
The newsletter provides an all-important historical reference for mountain running worldwide and serves as a reminder of the many activities which the WMRA oversees.
Special thanks to newsletter editor and WMRA council member Adrian Woods, and the great work provided by John Barnes who provides both the print and online versions.
The hard copy printed edition of the newsletter will soon be distributed to all National Athletic Federations.

&nbsp,

&nbsp,

Edited from Nancy Hobbs (WMRA)

Source of the picture:
on front page (by editor):
-&nbsp, cover of WMRA Newsletter 2014.

“Eritrean Petro Mamu and Italian Valentina Belotti are the winners of the second stage of 16. WMRA World Cup race in France.
Eritrean runner Petro Mamu was one of the favourites on the start line in Willer-sur-Thur .
His results in the second part of the season 2013 were promising and he did not disappoint at the first WMRA event in 2014 he took part.
When he crossed the finish line on the top of Vosges&rsquo,s, the stop watch was showing incredible time 57:36, which meant that he improved Arslan&rsquo,s record from 2012 for almost 2 minutes!
After 3km of the 13,4km long course with 1230m elevation gain that includes also 210 m of descent, he felt stronger than his closest opponents Teklay, Tsege, Rancon and Kenyan Wandangi. His advantage was growing from kilometre to kilometre and was finally almost 3 minutes.
Runners from 8 countries were in the top 15.
”
“In the women&rsquo,s race Valentina Belotti was also the favourite on the paper.
She won this race in 2013 and 2012, when she set the course record, and she was second just a week ago at the first stage of the Mountain running World Cup in Bludenz. Her time was almost 2 minutes slower than her record, but still enough for a clear victory. Merenyi Timea from Hungary that finished 5th in Bludenz finished second and Melanie Noll just behind her (she finished 7th in Bludenz).
The competition in the women&rsquo,s race was not as strong as in the men&rsquo,s race.
The women&rsquo,s course was 8,4km long with 820m elevation gain.
After the race, Valentina said, that she is not in the top shape in this time, because she is preparing for the European Championships. She likes the challenging course and the friendly organizers. The only part of the course she does not like are 2 rocky sections just in the last 2 kilometres.
New course record holder Petro Mamu, who faces with this course for the first time, liked the course, he thinks the course is not very difficult, because the declination does not change a lot, there are no really steep parts. The course is really runnable, which suits him. His biggest enemy during the today&rsquo,s race was the wind, that was blowing extremely strong especially in the upper part, when the course comes out of the forest. For that reason it was also pretty cold from time to time.
The organizers from Athletic Club Thann chaired by the Jean-Alain Haan organized the 34 edition of this race with lots of enthusiasm. Experiences gained in all those years made their job easier, but every year they find ideas and energy to improve particular details. After successful National championships in 2013 this time they were not satisfied with the smaller number of entered runners.
Running conditions were pretty good for running &ndash, dry course and excellent temperatures for the runners were disturbed only by the strong wind in the upper part.
The next third stage of the World Cup will be the Grintovec race in Slovenia at the end of July.

&nbsp,

Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA)

&nbsp,

Source of the pictures:
on front page (from Tomo Sarf):
&nbsp,- Mamu, men winner in action,
&nbsp,on second page (from Tomo Sarf):
&nbsp,- top three women on the podium.

“

“Turkey, Bulgaria, Moldova, Croatia, F.Y. Rep of Macedonia, Greece and hosting Country Romania sent their athletes at the 6th Balkan Mountain Running Championships held at Vatra Dornei (ROM) on 15. June 2014.
Turkey (with 6 gold, 2 silver and 3 bronze), Romania (2 gold, 3 silver and 1 bronze), Bulgaria (3 silver and 3 bronze) and Moldova (1 bronze) won medals.
Four races took place on the classic WMRA distances for junior male and female, individual and team.
52 runners started in the Championships.
”
At this moment ABAF members are 15 and the participation of seven of them must be considered very positively.
In both junior races the podium was totally occupied by Turkish runners men and women.
Turkish Kantekin Umran Sedef won title in the junior women race in front of her fellows Temel Remziye and Erdal Tubay.
Turkish Yilmaz Ridvan won title in the junior men race in front of his fellows Bayram Turgay and Piskek Firat.
Also the podium for teams were the same in female and male junior races: Turkish team champion, Romania silver and Bulgaria bronze.
Different situation in the senior races.
Female competitions saw two Romanian victories.
In the individual Balkan Champion was Romanian Denisa Ionela Dragomir, in front of Bulgarian Milka Mihaylova, silver, and Romanian Nicoleta Alina Petrescu, bronze.
Romanian women team took gold medal with 13 points, followed by Bulgaris (silver) with 16 points and Turkey (bronze) with 21 points.
Male competitions were &ndash, once more &ndash, won by Turkish runners.
In the individual Balkan Champions was Kazan Deniz, in front of Bulgarian Stoyan Tevekelev, silver, and Moldavian Vitalie Gheorghita, bronze (historical first medal for Moldova in one international mountain running Championships).
Turkish team became Balkan Champion with 10 points, Romanian team finished second with 21 points and Bulgarian team was third with 25 points. In the result also Macedonian team with 43 points.
Balkan Mountain Running Championships is a very Important event in the international mountain running calendar, for a lot of reasons.
Full result are available in the result section of this WMRA webpage.&nbsp,
&nbsp,
Edited from Bruno Gozzelino (WMRA)

Source of the pictures:
on front page
– BMRC official poster

“After the opening race on the Muttersberg at Bludenz (Austria), the Mountain Running World Cup will continue with the second race in the series this Sunday, June 15, at Grand-Ballon, France.
For the past six years, the Grand-Prix – and now renamed: World Cup – has held one of its stages on the top of the Vosges.
Last year, the race of the Mont&eacute,e du Grand-Ballon also hosted the French Mountain Running Championship with more than 700 runners.
This year, 500 runners combined are expected at the start line of the two events, one&nbsp, in Willer-sur-Thur for men and the other at Goldbach-Altenbach for women.
”
“The men’s race is 13,5km with +1200m of elevation gain.
Three Eritrean runners will be on the start line including Azaria Teklay, winner of last year ‘s Grand Ballon and winner of the two last Grand-Prix, Primo Mamu, the World Champion of 2012, and Debessay Tsege. Also competing this year will be Julien Rancon, the French Mountain Running Champion the past two years and winner of the Grand Ballon in 2007 and 2010.
Rancon will be joined by French National Team member Benjamin Bellamy.
Emanuele Manzi (Italy) and&nbsp, Glenn Hughes (NZL) are also registered and the organization is waiting for confirmation of Hirum Wandangi (Kenya), who was recently second at the Gamperney Berglauf in Switzerland and third at the opening race in Bludenz.
Italy, Great Britain and Germany are organizing their national mountain running championships and trails for the upcoming European championships in Gap (France) which will be held the same day as the Grand-Ballon.
This second World Cup stage seems very competitive in the men’s division, but for the women, Valentina Belotti (Italy), winner of the two last Mont&eacute,e du Grand Ballon, and Helene Froehlich, the duathlon French champion, are the only top competitors presently registered.

&nbsp,

Edited from Tomo Sarf and Nancy Hobbs (WMRA)

&nbsp,

Source of the pictures:
on front page (from LOC):
– front page of the brochure,
on second page (from Tomo Sarf):
– Valentina Belotti.

“

“Almost 200 runners form 12 countries took part on the first race of the 16 WMRA World Cup running an excellent and challenging course at Bludenz (AUT).
The running conditions were good for the runners, maybe just too hot forthis part of the year when the runners are not used to the summer heath yet.
Austrian doctor Andrea Mayrdominated at the first stage of the Mountain Running World Cup. Andrea left heropponents behind soon after the start and joined the second group of the men.Her advantage was growing from kilometre to kilometre and was at the finish 2minutes before the second and unbelievable 5 minutes before the third. Hersuccess is not a surprise – in her long and reach sport career she got 6 goldmedals at World and European Championships (mostly in uphill events, also ECh2013), she was also the WMRA Grand Prix winner in 2010. Besides she is anexcellent steeple chess and marathon runner. With this convincing victory sheannounced her attack to the next gold world&rsquo,s medal.
”
“In the men&rsquo,s race the situation was not too easy for the winner.
A small group headed by Alex Baldaccini from Italy, who finished second at European Champs and WMRA Grand Prix 2013, separated in the middle part of the course. At km seven, 1,5km and 300m elevation to the finish, they got small advantage of 15 seconds. The three chasers were nearby at this point, where the real race begins &ndash, this past part is a real mounting running on a steep, narrow trail.
In the last 500m Kenyan runner Simon Muthoni, who is running for Austrian club Run2gether, squeezed some more energy from his body and crossed the finish line 23 seconds before the more experienced Italian Runner.
The organizers, chaired by local mountain running enthusiast Hubert R&ouml,dhammer, celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Muttersberglauf on the new designed course. It starts in the old city centre, after 1km the already steep road turns across the beautiful meadows to the forest. Nice narrow trails parts are exchanging with the road from km 1 &ndash, km 3. The middle part of the course follows the macadam road with stabile 10% gradient and the last 1,8km of almost 9km long course with 1150 elevation is on picturesque trail with beautiful vies to the Bludenz Valley and surroundings more than 3000 metres high peaks dominated by 3312m high Piz Buin in famous Silvretta group.
The organizers have done great job &ndash, the organisation was excellent in all parts including the victory ceremony, where new named World Cup was promoted in a good way.

Video http://tvthek.orf.at/program/Vorarlberg-heute/70024/Vorarlberg-heute/8028416/Berglauf-Weltcup-Bludenz/8028420

&nbsp,

Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA

&nbsp,

Source of the pictures:
on front page (by Tomo Sarf):
-&nbsp,Andrea Mayr on the track,&nbsp,

on second page (by Tomo Sarf):
– Baldaccini in front of Muthoni during the race.
&nbsp,

&nbsp,

“

“The organizing team &bdquo,Berglauf Team Sparkasse Bludenz&ldquo, is pleased to welcome a world class field at the Muttersberglauf at summer temperatures on June 8.
The race in Bludenz (Austria) is due to the efforts of Hubert R&ouml,dhammer traditionally a meeting point for big names in the international mountain running scene.
This year, especially as the first race of the first edition of Mountain Running World Cup, the race will be held on a prolonged, particularly demanding course.
The participants will have to fight with 1160 height meters on a distance of 8,4km. The track is varied: it starts on the road in the city, followed by changing sections on tarred roads, forest roads and wood land paths
”
“The winner will be decided on the final, steep alpine paths where 380 height meters have to be overcome within just 1,9km.&nbsp,If the weather forecast is correct, all finishers will be awarded at the finish on the &ldquo,Fra&szlig,enh&uuml,tte&rdquo, with a marvellous mountain panorama.In every case, especially in the women&rsquo,s division, a very thrilling running is expected. World class mountain runners like Valentina Belotti, Antonella Confortola, Mateja Kosovelj, Sara Tunstall, Veronika Maina, Andrea Mayr, Sabine Reiner and many others have already registered for the race.
In the men&rsquo,s field David Schneider, Alex&nbsp, Baldaccini , Emanule Manzi, Mitja Kosovelj, Adam&nbsp, Kovacs, Sandor Scabor and Hirum Wandangi are the favourites.
The top runners will be introduced in the context of the pasta party in the &ldquo,Bergrestaurant Muttersberg&rdquo, on June 7th between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m.
WMRA will be represented by WMRA Council members, Tomo Sarf and Wolfgang Munzel.

&nbsp,

&nbsp,

Edited from LOC

&nbsp,

Source of the pictures:
on front page (by LOC):
– moment of the last year’s race,

on second page (by LOC):
– profile of the race,-
– map of the track.

“

“A successful Mountain Running Seminar was recently held between 23 -25 April in Antalya, Kemer, Turkey.
The seminar was organised by Erhan Basoglu, WMRA council member, and Hasan Babac, member of the European Mountain Running Commission.
It was supported by the Turkish Athletic Federation (TAF) and World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) and was attending by 15 of Turkey’s endurance and mountain running coaches from across the country.
The speakers included WMRA Council member Erhan Basoglu (TUR) and WMRA secretary Adrian Woods (GBR).”
“

Basoglu gave a presentation on designing a mountain running course and the organisation required to stage a successful mountain race.
Woods made several presentations and demonstrations over the three days including the technical aspects and strategies required for mountain running, uphill and downhill training methods, strength and conditioning exercises for athletes, designing training programmes and nutrition for running.
The seminar concluded on the last day with practical demonstrations on the course.
Certainly this seminar will be very useful for Turkish athletics in order to increase performances of their athletes at international level: Turkey is at the moment a leader nation in mountain running and the reasons for the good results are also initiative like this!
The mountain running seminar demonstrated that mountain running as an endurance activity is an integral branch of the athletic family.
Hopefully it will encourage more athletic federations to organise similar events and attract more trainers, coaches and athletes into the sport of mountain running.

&nbsp,

&nbsp,

Edited from Adrian Woods (WMRA)

Source of the pictures:
On front page (by WMRA):
– Partecipants at the Seminar,

On second page (by WMRA):
– Erhan Basoglu and Adrian Woods,
– a demostration moment.

“