Author: wmra_wp

Rock of Gibraltar International.

The preview below also appears, with photographs, on the IAAF web page.

The world famous ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ is the venue for the final WMRA Grand Prix race of the season on Saturday 28th October. The mens course is 11.8km with 730 m of ascent and 240m of descent. The womens course is 8.2km .
The race finishes on the top of the Rock where spectacular views of the Mediterranean on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other can be enjoyed. Entertainment will be provided by the semi wild Barbary apes that inhabit the Rock.
All the leading 15 Grand Prix contenders are invited as the guests of the race organisers, Gibraltar AAA, whose main sponsor is the Government of Gibraltar.
Marco Gaiardo (ITA), who has run second to Jonathan Wyatt (NZL) all season, will not compete leaving Wyatt as the overall Grand Prix winner before the final race starts. Nevertheless, Wyatt will be aiming to make this his 5th consecutive Grand Prix victory. His challengers in the absence of Gaiardo will be last years winner in this race, Vicente Mena Capitan (ESP), and Marco de Gasperi (ITA), former World champion on four occasions who is coming into top form after an early season injury. Great Britain international Andi Jones will also be in contention.
With Gaiardo secure in second position in the GP ranking, the third position is wide open for several runners to claim. The current GP ranking and points system can be seen on the results page of www.wmra.info.
Izabella Zatorska (POL), last years winner, will be faced with the daunting task of beating Anna Pichrtova (CZE) already Grand Prix winner and European champion.
The up and coming young Mateja Kosovelj (SLO) has the potential to lift herself from 5th to 2nd in the GP ranking if she reproduces the form she showed in winning the fifth GP race in Switzerland.
The race prize list for both men and women is identical starting at 1000€ for the winners and going down to tenth position.
Prizes for winners in the overall Grand Prix ranking will be presented after the race.

Danny Hughes

Results

49° TROFEO VANONI
Victory for the Forestale Team with new record of the race by Marco De Gasperi

The C.S. Forestale Team (Agostini, Manzi, De Gasperi), with a final time of 1h30’56”, won the 49° Trofeo Vanoni, international relay race, held in Morbegno (SO) – Italy, on 22nd October 2006
Second place for the Great Britain Team (Jones, Holmes, Peace) in 1h31’29” and third place for Atletica Valle Camonica Team (Agostini, Rinaldi, Rinaldi) in 1h31’54”, fourth place for Atletica Valli Bergamasche (Bonetti, Zanaboni, Lanfranchi) and fifth place for the France Team (Icart, Roux, Rancon).
Congratulations to Marco De Gasperi who set a new record time of 28’45” for the course. Second was Julien Rancon (France) with 29’48” and third Andi Jones (Great Britain) with 30’06”.
There was a large participation involving 128 teams, 44 women and 216 runners at the junior race.
The 23rd Vanoni femminile was won by Mariagrazia Roberti (C.S. Forestale) in 22’54”, second Mary Wilkinson (Great Britain) in 23’08” and third Cristina Scolari (Atletica Vallecamonica) in 23’12”.
Full results and photographs can be seen on the event web page via the link on the wmra page.

Ranking after 5 races
The WMRA Grand Prix ranking after five races is posted under ‘results’ on the wmra web page. The final Grand Prix event is in Gibraltar on October 28th. See our previous news items regarding LOC financial support for athletes, and the event web page for the impressive prize list.

Smarna Gora

WMRA 5th Grand Prix race
Smarna Gora (Slovenia) 7th October.
As expected, the two dominant European mountain runners Jonathan Wyatt (NZL who is based in Europe for the summer season) and Marco Gaiardo (ITA) finished first and second respectively as they have done on each of their four grand Prix clashes this summer. However, because Jonathan was absent from the fifth Grand Prix which Marco won, the result of the overall result of the Grand Prix series now hangs on the result of the final race in Gibraltar which carries bonus points. If Jonathan did not run and Marco won he would take the Grand prix title by a margin of 10 points. All the minor placings are still undecided as Andrez Dlugosz forced himself into contention with a fine third position.
In the ladies race, as suspected, local girl who is still under 20, Mateja Kosovelj (SLO) left current GP champion Izabella Zatorska (POL) who was third and fellow Slovenian Lucija Krkoc, 2nd, in her wake as she broke the course record by 61 seconds and won comfortably by more than two minutes. With a similar performance in Gibraltar she could still lift herself from 5th position to runner up position behind Anna Pichrtova.
The full race results may be seen on the event web page via the link on www.wmra.info.
The final Grand Prix race, on October 28th takes place in Gibraltar with an 11km course that finishes at the summit of the spectacular ‘Rock of Gibraltar’.

Danny Hughes

Final Grand Prix race

The LOC inform us that it is now possible to offer, to athletes entering the race, free full board accommodation from Friday 27th October to Sunday 29th October to the first 30 applicants.
You are advised to travel to Malaga (Spain), on the above dates, in order to ensure free transfer to Gibraltar.
Contact by telephone: Work – 00350 48888.
Home – 00350 70949.
or via the e-mail address on the event web page (via link on www.wmra.info)

You travel details will be required.

Update news.
New web pages have been produced for the 2006 Rock of Gibraltar and Obudu Ranch international mountain race.
Access them via the links on www.wmrs.info.
Updated paperwork for the 2007 Grand Prix has also been published on the Grand Prix page.

The International ‘Rock of Gibraltar’ mountain race
Arrangements for the final WMRA Grand Prix event, the ‘3rd international Rock of Gibraltar mountain race’ are in hand. The leading contenders in the Grand Prix Ranking list after the 5th race (Smarna Gora on 7th October) will receive invitations to compete which means that their economy travel expenses from a main international airport in Europe to Malaga (Spain) will be reimbursed by the LOC on arrival. Transfer from Malaga to Gibraltar will be arranged for arrival on Friday and departure on Sunday The first ten men and five women in the ranking list will receive invitations by e-mail so it is important that they indicate their intention to accept the invitation by sending a message to the LOC using the contact address on the event web page which can be accessed via the link on www.wmra.info Itinerant runners (i.e those not specially invited) should visit the event web page to enterthe race and obtain accommodation and travel details.

Web page ready.
Those interested in competing in the WMRA 6th Grand Prix race in Gibraltar should visit the new event web page. Access it via the link on www.wmra.info
Invited runners will be notified after the 5th Grand Prix race in Slovenia (Smarna Gora) Itinerant runners may apply for the limited amount of special rate accommodation.

Saillon-Ovronnaz 23rd September 2006

700 athletes gathered in Saillon-Ovronnaz for this popular ‘out of stadium’ masters event. WMRA (World Mountain Running Association) were joined by the WMA (World Masters Association) in promoting the races, Brian Keaveny and Josep….attending on WMA’s behalf. Categories for men and women 35 to 75+ in 5 year steps were all catered for, each age category starting together 20 minutes after each other. Of the nine defending champions only Gerlinde Schmittner (GER- W60) was able to retain her title. However the other defending champions did not surrender their positions without some fierce battles. Baggio (ITA – M70) slipped to 5th but Reinhart Volger (GER-M55)was 2nd, Nigel Gates (England -M50) was 3rd, and Maureen Laney (England- W50) was second. Previous champions emerged to re-establish themselves after a year or two out of gold medal position. Kasper Schiber (SUI) moved up an age group to win M65 and Marianne Spronk (GER0 regained her W55 title. The M45 group was the largest with 104 competitors. This year, for the first time, team awards were given to the winning country in categories 55 and younger. The result was calculated by taking the first three from a country to finish in a category and adding the position as points to give a score – lowest score winning of course. Full results can be seen on the French version of the event web page via www.wmra.info Next years championships take place in Bludenz (Austria) on September 23rd.

Pichrtova clinches Grand Prix victory.
The WMRA Grand Prix ranking, after the 4th race on 24th September, can now be seen on the WMRA web page under the ‘Results’ heading. The remaining GP races are Smarna Gora (Slovenia) and The Rock of Gibraltar (Gibraltar, details of which can be found on the event web pages via the links on www.wmra.info