Author: wmra_wp

The 32nd World Mountain Championships is taking place on September 11, 2016 in the beautiful city of Sapareva Banya, Bulgaria.
It is the only city that has organized National, Balkan (2008), European (2010) and now World Championships in Mountain Running.
“We are extremely proud and honoured to be hosting a prestigious international event of such evel – said Kalin Gelev, Mayor of Sapareva Banya Municipality – 25 years after the first mountain race held here, we have athletes from 35 countries coming from all the continents in the world, who are going to compete on the challenging slopes up Rila Mountain.”
The official opening ceremony of the Championships will take place on Saturday in the city centre by the famous Geyzer.
The Minister of Youth and Sports of Bulgaria, Mr. Krasen Kralev will shoot the starting gun of one of the races the next day.

Turkish athlete Ahmed Aslan, 6-times European Champion, bronze medalist from 2008 and silver medalist from the 2011 World Mountain Running Championships is among the contenders for the podium along with Bernard Dematteis ITA, vice champion from last year’s edition.

It is not possible forget the chances of USA team, both category, men and women.
Another Turkish athlete – Ferhat Bozkurt, World Champion from 2015 and bronze medalist from 2014 will reach for the gold in the junior men.  
Finally all the four races will be very intersting with top level runners present.

The 16th edition of World Masters Mountain Running Championships 2016 in Susa was a big success. 

World Masters Mountain Running Championships Susa (Itay) 2016 are ready to start with great numbers: 700 athletes enrolled in the master race and in the open race, 27 countries including Italy.
Among the countries with the highest number of athletes, are Italy with 325 athletes, Great Britain, with 65 members, Germany (39) and Slovakia (33). Ireland (23), Czech Republic (22), Norway (14), Spain (13), France (9), Poland (9), Malta (6), Switzerland (6), USA (5), New Zeland (4), Austria (4), Serbia (3), Sweden (3), Netherlands (3), Australia (2), Slovenia (2), Portugal (1), Hungary (1), Denmark (1), Cuba (1), Belgium (1), Belarus (1), Mexico (1) will also be present.
The World Masters Mountain Running Championships, are hosted by Italy for the third time after the 2004 edition in Sauze d’Oulx (Turin) and the 2011 edition in Paluzza (Udine).
The ones of 2016 are the 16th edition of the event.

The World Championships in Susa will be a race run through history: the start will take place under the Arch of Augustus in Susa, a splendid example of archaeological remains of the Roman Empire, while the arrival of the male master classes (age 35 – 50) will be at Costa Rossa where a memorial stone celebrates the deeds of Partigiani who fought fascism, a group led by Commander “Laghi”, alias Giulio Bolaffi, in the battle of Grange Sevine of August 26, 1944. This is the Stellinarace, the Memorial the partisans of Stellina, which this year celebrates its 28th edition.
Compared with the 2015 event in Wales, when the path was of ascent and descent, the route of Susa is only ascent.
TOP RUNNERS. Many prominent names in the history of mountain running and especially in the history of Stellina will be present. Among them Antonio Molinari and Jonathan Wyatt, two icons, world champions in the past who share the roll of honour of the Stellinarace. Was the absolute world champion in 1996 in Telfes (AUT) and world champion master in 2011 (M40 category); in his palmares in the World Championships over 35 there are two silvers (2007 and 2012) and one bronze (2014). A great friend of the Stellinarace, he won without interruption from 1995 to 1998 and climbed on the podium several times, recently in 2007 when he won silver. Wyatt, from New Zealand, was world champion in mountain running for 6 times (1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2008). He is the king of the Stellinarace as won 15 editions (1999-2009, 2013 and 2014). He is also the testimonial of Master Susa 2016 World Cup with his wife, Antonella Confortola (it’s exactly on the path on the path of Susa that they met for the first time).
Among the “Azzurri” the name of Marco Olmo, M65, is linked to the dawn of Italian trail; after years of racing in the most extreme races and the longest trails, always present from 1996-2015 in the Marathon de Sable, extreme 240km race across the Sahara in Morocco (he climbed the podium in 1996 and in 1997, winning the third place). Now Marco Olmo is back to where it all started, the mountain running. One of the opponents of Olmo will be Elio Ruffino, holder of the record ascent and descent of Rocciamelone departing from Susa. The world champion Marino Portigliotti will run in the M60 category.
Among the top foreign runners, a prominent place is held by Cesar Costa (M40) a Portuguese living in Switzerland; several times in the absolute national of his country, he climbed the podium of the Sierre-Zinal, one of the historical mountains race, four times. The British Martin Cox (M45) will also be present. He was on the podium of Stellina in 2001 (2nd) and 2002 (3rd), silver at the 2015 World Master Mountain Championships. Another British runner is Ben Mounsey, born in 1981, at the start of the M35, who only a few months ago participated at the Europeans Mountain Championships in Arco di Trento. The races of the World Championships Zac Freudenburg (M35) from Netherlands, the British Karl Grey (M45), Robert Craig (M50), Bernard Grant (M65) and Geoffrey Howard (M70), the German Franz Prager (M55) will also deserved to be watched with interest.
Other stars of the British team (World Champions in 2015), Anna Lupton (F35), Ali Keates (F50) and Ann-Marie Jones (F60) will be in the race and the the Czech Jana Matyasova, absolute national of her country will run in the F50 category.
PROGRAM. The 2016 World Championship event of Susa kicks off with a non-competitive race on Thursday, August 25 “Waiting for the World Master Mountain Running Championships” will take place at 18:00 in Susa (on-site registration open until departure). On Friday will be the turn of the official opening ceremony at 18.00 in Principe Oddone Square in Susa with a parade of the participating nations. On Saturday and Sunday the open race and the world master races will take place in the morning, while in the afternoon there will be the award ceremonies in Principe Oddone Square where the World Championships Village is placed. Excellent food and wine, hand craft objects of the Susa Valley and the exhibition point of Mizuno, technical sponsor of the event, will be in the same square. On Saturday afternoon starting at 16:00 there will be a ceremony in honour of the Partigiani with the reading of some pages from the diary of Giulio Bolaffi, Commander “Laghi”. On Sunday, August 28 at 16:00 the closing ceremony will start in the Italian national team who will participate at the World Championships in Mountain Race scheduled on September 11 in Sanpareva Banya in Bulgaria will be presented to the public and to the media.
The passage of the flag to the delegation of Dubnica nad Vahom (Slovakia), organizer of the 2017 World Masters Mountain Running Championships, will follow.
FIDAL will be present with the FIDAL Council member, Alessandro Talotti.
WMRA will be present at the competition with its President, Italian Bruno Gozzelino, and some WMRA Council members, starting from the WMRA Delegate, German Wolfgang Munzel.
For the first time, also WMA President, Australian Stan Perkins, with Canadian Brian Kaeveney, WMA Official, will attend at the Championships.
Everything is ready in Susa for the 2016 edition of the Masters World Mountain Running Championships.

Edited from Myriam Scamangas (Stellinarace Press Office)

Source of the pictures (LOC):
on front page: 
– logo of the Champioships.

Petro Mamu (ERI) and Andrea Mayr (AUT) are the clear winners of the third stage of the World Mountain Running Cup 2016 in Telfes-Stubaitall-Austria.

Just after the start a small mixed group was formed.  

The five African runners started fast on the first flat part and just few others did follow.  

The late winner Mamu planned to attack in the steep, middle part, where he got one minute advantage and after he only controlled what was going on behind him – after winning the first two WCup stages, he was the favourite already before the start and he did not disappoint. Mamu clocked 56minutes and 7 seconds.

Robbie Simpson, who finished second with time of 57:39, seems to be a big surprise although he is standard member of the British MR team since 2008; he even finished world and European Championships 2014 and 2015 inside top 4, so his excellent run should not be a surprise. 

Kenyans Wangiri (third with 58:16) and Kosgei (fourth with 58:31) are well known runners and their top positions were expected. German Toni Lautenbacher finished fifth with time of 59:27.

Runners from five countries were on the top seven positions. 

Andrea Mayr is still dominating in the international women’s mountain running; she even improved her own course record for 14 seconds. Her final time was 1hour 4 minutes and 13 seconds.

The second placed Sylvia Schwaiger from Slovakia finished fifth the European Champs a month ago in Arco, but on a completely different course: she sclocked 1.07:00

American Annie Bersagel is in Europe mostly unknown, so her third place was a surprise also for her opponents: her time was 1.08:15. 

Czech Petra Novakova was fourth with of 1.10:47 and Austrian Susanne Mair (winner of last year) finished fifth with tome of 1.11:16.

Runners from five countries were on the top six positions. 

The organizer did a good job.  

The competition was well organized and all the participants left the Stubai valley with remark in their diaries “come again”.

 

Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA Council member)

The 28th International Schlickeralmlauf on July 31st 2016 in Telfes in the Stubai Valley is the third stage of the WMRA World Cup race series this year. 

The Schlickeralmlauf has helped the idyllic location Telfes in the Stubai Valley on nearly 1,000 meters above sea level to prominence in the world and represents a fixed date in the racing cal-endar of every ambitious mountain runner. 

The International Schlickeralmlauf starts in the center of Telfes in the Stubai Valley and from there the track leads either over 7.5 km and 650 altitude metres to the Schlickeralm or over 11.5 km and 1,100 altitude metres to the Kreuzjoch mountain station in the hiking center Schlick 2000. 

Antonella Confortola (ITA) and Petro Mamu (ERI) are the winners of the 18th Grintovec Mountain Running race, the second stage of the Mountain Running World Cup 2016. 

Antonella, the standard member of Italian mountain running and cross country skiing teams for two decades was today too strong for Lucija Krko?, the local favourite and Karmen Klancnik, the 2015 winner. 

African runners stared the race on the first, not so steep part of the course very carefully. 

“Medal table of 13. NACAC Mountain Running Championships saw USA as leader with 5 medals (2 gold and 3 silver) in front of hosting Country Mexico with 4 medals (2 gold and 2 bronze) and Canada with 3 medals (1 silver and 2 bronze).
The venue for the 13th NACAC Mountain Running Championships offered a challenging nine-kilometer course, which ascended over rocky and craggy terrain to the summit of Cerro Gordo in Jalisco, Mexico.
The starting elevation was approximately 2100 meters while the finish line reached just over 2600 meters.”
“Results were close between the three nations who competed at this year&rsquo,s event today making the team scoring tight for all of the divisions.
The top three men from each country were scored for the team result, whereas for the women it was the top two women from each country.
Individually, in the men race, Juan Carlos Carera Casas (MEX) finished in 41:15 to take gold, followed by Josh Eberly (USA) in 41:43 for silver, and Victor Daniel Mercado Miranda (MEX) in 41:58 for bronze.
With the strong performance by Casa and Miranda, and their final scorer in sixth position, Mexico raced to team gold with a total of 10 points to USA&rsquo,s 14.
Benoit Gignac (CAN) was his country&rsquo,s top finisher leading the team to the bronze medal.
On the women&rsquo,s side, Team USA claimed the top two podium spots with Megan Roche earning individual gold and Ladia Albertson-Junkans in silver position.
The pair led Team USA to the gold medal with three points.
Their finish times were 51:48 and 51:57 respectively.
Rounding out the top three was Megan Franks (CAN) in a time of 52:24.Along with her teammate Mirabelle Tinio, who finished in seventh, Team Canada&rsquo,s score of ten points narrowly edged out Mexico whose combined score was 11.
The City of Tepatitlan hosted the athletes and provided a friendly and inviting atmosphere for the teams who enjoyed authentic cuisine and enthusiastic support from the locals.
Representing the WMRA was its treasurer Nancy Hobbs (USA), who along with Houston Franks (CAN), Pedro Fletes (MEX), Miguel Lopez (MEX) Richard Bolt (USA), and several members of the local municipality including the president of Tepatitlan, presented awards to the winning athletes and teams during an evening ceremony.

Edited by Nancy Hobbs (WMRA Treasurer)

Source of the pictures (Hobbs):
on front page:
– Carera (Mex),
on second page:
– podium men,
– Roche (USA),
– podium women.”

“The 13th annual NACAC Mountain Running Championships will be held in Tepatitl&aacute,n, Jalisco, Mexico on Sunday, July 10.&nbsp,

”
Both individual and team competition are staged, with nations competing head-to-head with one another.&nbsp,

Edited by Nancy Hobbs (WMRA Treasurer)&nbsp,

“Italian team won 3 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze, and so in total 10 medals at the 15th European Mountain Running Championships.&nbsp,

”
“VIP, coaches, athletes, spectators had the beautiful opportunity to follow every part of the race because LOC arranged 20 cameras along the track and a great video wall in the finish area.
The weather was mixed during the entire period of the races: a bit ‘of sunshine but also violent downpours, but the races were held regularly, without incident.

“