Author: wmra_wp

WMRA Commission members.

At their recent meeting in Monaco, WMRA Council appointed an Anti-Doping Commission who will be responsible for implementing the WMRA Anti-doping regulations. These regulations will be finalised in the near future.
Members of the Commission are Danny Hughes (GBR), Tomo Sarf (SLO) Bruno Gozzelino (ITA) Dr Sonja Ambrosy (GER) and Thomas Capdevielle (IAAF).
The first meeting of the commission will take place on 9th March when the final text of the regulations will be agreed and arrangements for both ‘in competition’ and ‘out of competition’ anti-dope testing will be announced.

The WMRA 2007 International mountain running calendar now appears on the WMRA web page.
Thanks to all those race organisers who have co-operated with Secretary Bruno Gozzelino in fixing dates. In order to appear in the International calendars of the IAAF, EAA, etc., it is necessary to present final details at the Calendar conference which takes place in mid-October. No sooner has your event been staged than you are being asked about next year, so thanks to you all.
We have started put up some links to those races which we know have their 2007 details appearing on their web page already. As soon as we are informed that your web page is 2007 ready, we will put that on our links page also.

Accident

Announcement.

Considerable interest and concern from friends within the mountain running community has been expressed following an accident in Nigeria in which Danny Hughes (President WMRA), Melissa Moon (Ex World Champion) Anna Pichrtova (European Champion) and Izabela Zatorska (Multiple medallist in European and World Trophy) were all involved.
With many enquiries arriving to me by e-mail I have decided that a statement, today, 6th December, should be published, on our web page, in response.
The above persons were being driven to the remote venue of the Obudu Ranch Mountain Race, Cross River State, Nigeria on Thursday 23rd November, when our driver of the Mercedes Benz four-wheel drive vehicle lost control at speed on a bend and turned the vehicle over.
Danny Hughes in the front passenger seat escaped with minor cuts and bruises. Melissa Moon sustained bruises but was still able to run in the mountain race on 25th November. Both Anna and Izabela were less fortunate and sustained serious but not life threatening injuries – these being fractured and broken bones and ribs. Medical confidentiality forbids a more specific statement.
They were both flown back to hospital in Calabar on 24th and there Anna had an operation on her arm. They spent two nights in hospital before travelling home on overnight flights from Lagos on 26th November to arrive on 27th.
On arriving home, both were hospitalised and assessment of their injuries showed that they were more serious than was revealed to us when in Nigeria. Anna underwent further complicated surgery and Izabela was transferred to a hospital specialising in chest injuries. They were both still in hospital on 4th December.
The prognosis for their complete recovery to enable them to resume their athletic careers is uncertain.
Since no follow up had been initiated by the Organisers by Saturday 2nd December, I wrote to the Governor of Cross River State and the Local Organisers chairman on 3rd December informing them of the latest situation and requesting details of insurance arrangements and possible compensation for Anna and Izabela.
As of today, 6th December, a reply is still awaited.

Danny Hughes

Decisions to be taken by forthcoming meetings of WMRA Council and Congress

WMRA Council have their next meeting on 13th January 2007.
This meeting will decide the venues for the 2008 European and World Masters championships and applications are invited.
WMRA also want to develop the ‘WMRA Youth Challenge’ event for 16-17 year old athletes that has been started and run successfully by Atletica Susa (Italy) for the past few years. Other countries are therefore invited to consider staging this event that we consider very important for feeding young athletes into the more severe World Trophy competition for juniors and eventually seniors. No decision about the 2008 venue will be taken for the moment but we are seeking a response from interested organisers.
The 2007 WMRA Congress in September 2007 will consider and vote on official applications to stage the 2009 World Trophy which is an up & down year.
The 2008 WMRA Council will meet in January as usual and decide on the venues for the 2009 World Masters and the 2009 World Long Distance Challenge.

Race Report

The following was the top story on the IAAF web page on 25th November.
Saturday 25 November 2006
Cross River State, Nigeria
Kenyan athlete, Francis Kibiwott, running in his first mountain race, and Kedir Rehima of Ethiopia produced commanding victories at the Obudu Ranch Mountain Race in Nigeria on Saturday 25th November, the richest mountain race in the world.

Running in good conditions, the competitors chased a $50,000 first place prize over an 11.5 km course with an 800m ascent up Obudu Mountain.

The men’s and women’s races started with a 15 minute gap between the two. Both races developed into a fierce competition between the inexperienced (for mountain running) invited African athletes, and the traditional mountain runners from Europe, USA and New Zealand.

At the seven kilometre point, World mountain running champion Rolando Ortiz of Colombia and five times champion, Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand, were in a group of seven which included Tesfayohonnes Mesfin of Eritrea, Kenyans Francis Kibiwott and John Korir, and Ethiopians Lemi (ETH); and Solomon Molla (ETH).

One by one the relentless pace up the unforgiving climb convinced the members of this lead pack to conserve their energies for a high placing rather than the $50,000 first prize. With 3 kilometres to go, Ortiz and Kibiwot had dropped all the opposition, and at this point Ortiz had eventually broke and gave way to Kibiwot who went on to win his very first mountain race, the $50,000 first prize, and en route, breaking the course record by five minutes in a time of 42:26. Ortiz, representing the mountain running fraternity, hung on for the $20,000 second place prize just 42 seconds behind, while the in form Eritrean, Mesfin, was third in 43:24. Soloman Bushendich, recent winner of the Amsterdam Marathon in 2:08:52 just edged Wyatt to take fourth place in 43:32 with Wyatt clocking 43:41. Korir was a further nine seconds behind in 43:50. Ethiopians Lemi and Solomon Molla completed the valuable prize winning positions.

The women’s race was also won by an east African, Ethiopian Kedir Rehima, who broke away from the experienced Hungarian Simona Staicu with 2 kilometres to go to win the $50,000 first prize with a new course record of 53:26. Staicu, the winner of this year’s famous mountain race, the Jungfrau Marathon, maintained her second position to finish in 54:24 and collect $20,000 while the $10,000 prize for third was won by Norwegian (and 4th in this years World Mountain Running championship) Anitah Eversten, who was fourth in this year’s World Mountain Running Championships, in 54:46. World Mountain Running Champion Andrea Mayr (AUT) was a fraction of a second behind in the same time, while the remaining prize positions were taken by Nicole Hunt (USA) Christine Lundy (USA), Hafida Richard(FRA) and Melissa Moon (NZL).

Race favourite, and European mountain running champion Anna Pichrtova missed the race having been hospitalised after a car accident while travelling to the race. Melissa Moon and Danny Hughes, also passengers in the car were relatively uninjured, but Izabella Zatorska was also hospitalised and missed the race.

The Governor of Cross River State, His Excellency Donald Duke, promised a bigger and better event next year.

Top athletes attracted by $227,000 prize purse.

The second edition of the Obudu Ranch international mountain race will take place on Saturday 25th November when Jonathan Wyatt’s theory that ‘the African runners long flowing style is not naturally suited to running up and down hills as they are on flat ground’ (IAAF top story 16th November) will be put to the test. The worlds top mountain runners will clash with several fast Africans for the valuable winners prize of $50,000 a runners up prize of $20,000 and third place taking $10,000. Prize values than drop in $1000 intervals down to 8th place (same prizes for women)

The race is the brainchild of the governor of Cross River State (Nigeria), His Excellency Donald Duke who is underwriting the cost of the event. The Obudu Ranch Resort is one of his flagship projects to attract tourists to this remote yet beautiful region of Nigeria close to the border with Cameroon. The Obudu ranch sits on a mountain plateau at an altitude of 1600m. where extensive new tourist accommodation has been built. Although there is a road from the base to the plateau, the route of the mountain race, you can travel from bottom to top by cable car – a state of the art Austrian construction completed last year, providing a spectacular and rather easier way to ascend the mountain than running up!
A new swimming complex has been installed which, situated as it is in rural Nigeria, has to be seen to be believed.

Wyatt will renew his rivalry with the new world mountain running champion, Rolando Ortiz (COL), and four times champion Marco de Gasperi (ITA). However, of great interest will be how the Africans from Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Eritrea, Cameroon, Rwanda, and S.Africa fare against the recognised mountain runners. Tesfayohonnes Mesfin (ERI) already has experience of mountain running when he was second to Wyatt in the 2004 World Trophy. His 9th position in this years world cross-country championship in Japan confirms that he is in fine condition to make a serious challenge. Also on the stating line is Solomon B. Naibei (KEN) who recently won the Amsterdam marathon in 2.08.52, and currently one of the worlds leading marathon runners. Francis Kibiwot (KEN), 11th in the IAAF 2006 half marathon world ranking list will be another serious contender.

The African women will face experienced mountain runners from Europe. Anna Pichrtova (CZE) is the current European champion, and Andrea Mayr AUT) the current world champion, both being accompanied by top mountain runners from Hungary, Poland, Norway, New Zealand, and USA.

The race is an IAAF permit event, a WMRA associate member event, and is organised by the LOC of Cross River State, assisted by the Athletic federation of Nigeria. Doping control will be carried out and prizes withheld pending the results.

Cycling accident in New Zealand
News Flash
Many of you will remember Australian mountain runner Paul Crake who competed for his country in the World Trophy from 1998 to 2002. He was a leading member of his team and had a best position of 16th at Innsbruck. Since then he has travelled the world taking part in a variety of competitive events including Stair climbing and professional cycling.
During a recent cycling event, the tour of Southland in New Zealand, Paul was blow off his bike by a strong gust of wind and hit a fence post which knocked him unconscious. He also severely damaged his vertebrae which has left him, for the moment, paralysed in the legs. The prognosis for recovery is very uncertain.
Paul is hospitalised in Burwood Hospital, Christchurch for the time being.

Story by IAAF Steve Landells
I am sure that all of you registered to receive WMRA news will be interested to read the article on Jonathan Wyatt written by Steve Landells and appearing on the IAAF web page.
To see it simply go to the following address.
http://www.iaaf.org/news where it is todays top story.

Invitation to register.
There are now 405 e-mail addresses registered to receive WMRA news.
Ocasionally I send a reminder to those not registered to receive news to consider doing so.
The process is quite simple and by logging on to a news item you will see the instructions.
I also invite those who have registered previously and whose e-mail address is no longer valid to deregister that address. I notice some addresses of people I know that are now out of date.

Final GP report

The following report also appears on the IAAF web page. Sunday 29 October 2006 Gibraltar – The race previews accurately predicted the results of the final WMRA Grand Prix race on the Rock of Gibraltar which took place yesterday, Saturday 29 October. Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand and Anna Pichrtova of the Czech Republic recorded their fifth Grand Prix victories in convincing style. MEN Wyatt won by 38 seconds from last year’s Rock of Gibraltar winner, Vicente Capitan (ESP) in 43:03 for the 11.5km course. With Wyatt and Italy’s Marco Gaiardo (not competing) unassailable in first and second positions in the overall Grand Prix ranking before the start of the final race, Andrzej Dlugos (POL) and Martin Cox (GBR) fought it out for third position. Although beaten by Dlugos by six seconds, Cox in fouth position acquired enough points to give him third position in the overall GP. Makus Kroell (AUT) could only manage tenth position in yesterday’s race and so slipped to 5th position overall, just five points behind Dlugos. The top nine prize winning positions in the men’s final Grand Prix ranking were from nine different countries – NZL; ITA; POL; AUT; SLO; CZE; AUS; and FRA. WOMEN With Pichrtova already declared overall women’s GP winner before the race began, the young Slovenian, Mateja Kosovelj, who is just nineteen, ran as well as could be expected and in finishing second, 40 seconds behind Pichrtova, elevated herself to second position in the overall women’s GP ranking. Iva Milsova (CZE) was third in both the Rock race and in the season’s ranking. Although the number of competitors in this final GP race were fewer than in the other European races, the quality was of the highest order with nearly all Grand Prix prize contenders present. The promised magnificent views of Europe and Africa, and of the Mediterranian and the Atlantic, from the top of the Rock were unfortunately missing as thick mist swirled around the summit. However, the Barbary apes caused plenty of amusement as they tried to pinch anything resembling food. Both Wyatt and Pichrtova will now prepare themselves for the lucrative Obudu Ranch Mountain Race in Nigeria on 25 November, when it will be seen if the top mountain runners can hold their own against the fast flat road running athletes who have been attracted to the race. Full results of both the Rock of Gibraltar race and the final Grand Prix ranking will be found on www.wmra.info