Race name and date are changed
The WMRA affiliated race titled the 1st Cross River State Race has been postponed until 27th November, and retitled the Obudu International Mountain Race.
Obudu is located in the north of Cross River State, Nigeria, about four hours drive from Calabar.
The state governor,His Excellency Donald Duke, has confirmed the generous prize listing including a $50,000 US first prize.
Registered users top 200.
Congratulations. more than 200 of you are now registered to receive WMRA news appearing on our web page. If you have friends with PC’s, who are interested in the international mountain running scene, we would be grateful if you could recommend the use of our Newstool to them.
Rules confirmed
The rules for the 2004 Grand Prix, proposed by the WMRA Grand Prix Working Group, were approved by the WMRA Council at their meeting in Monaco on January 24th. These rules and other matters related to the Grand Prix series can now be seen by visiting our web page and selecting ‘Grand Prix’.
Web pages now available
The web pages for the 2004 World mountain Running Trophy and the Masters World Mountain Running Championships in Sauze d’Oulx (Italy) are now being developed. Much information is now available and links to the pages can be found via the WMRA web page under ‘Links’.
The WMRA 2004 calendar of international mountain races may now be seen on the WMRA web page. It is also published on the EAA web page for wider circulation to the athletic community.
The calendar lists the Trophy and Championship races, the Grand Prix races, and international races which are associate members of WMRA.
There are also e-mail addresses to which you can write for further information.
Video and Photographs now available
A dramatic video of the Trophy event in Alaska is now available on DVD. It was shown at the closing ceremony and hailed as the best record of World Trophy races that has ever been produced. You can order it by going to the 2003 wmrt web page via our link, and selecting ‘Merchandise’. The video order form is the last item.
You can also view hundreds of photographs of all the races, including the open race, and purchase any you require by going to: ‘www.sports-section.com/alaska’ or to: ‘www.photoreflect.com/scripts/prsm.dll?EventFrame?event=004M00E5’ These are high quality photographs taken by a professional photographic firm ‘The Sports Section’ run by John and Cindy Hitchcock.
Changes and additions to the World Trophy rules
The updated World Trophy rules, agreed at the recent WMRA congress, concerning course design and the lower age limit for competing in the junior World Trophy races, now appear on our web page under ‘Rules’.
EAA Council announces championship venues for the next two years
At its council meeting in Edinburgh last weekend, (12th October), the EAA council announced that Poland will host the 2004 championships in Jelesnia (up & down), and that Austria will host the 2005 championships in Heiligenblut on the, uphill only, Grossglockner race course.
Earlier, Slovenia notified the EAA mountain running commission of its intention to bid for the 2006 championships. the closing date for formal bids is April 2004 and application forms are available from the EAA office.
Alaska hosts a memorable World Mountain Running Trophy. Until full results and photographs are published on our web page, these can be seen by using the link to the 2003 Trophy web page.
When selecting Alaska as the venue for the 2003 World Trophy races, the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) were well aware that some risks were involved. We had no doubt that the organisation would be of a high standard and this proved to be the case. However, the cost of reaching the venue threatened to deter many countries from participating, and the weather was an unpredictable factor since, after all, we knew that Alaska was a rather cold part of the USA. With the assurance that it never snowed on the competition mountain in mid September (!) all plans went ahead.
The problem of travelling costs was mitigated by generous travelling grants from the IAAF and WMRA and we had a satisfactory attendance from 27 different countries.
In the days, before the competition Girdwood (about 40km from Anchorage) enjoyed blue skies with cold frosty mornings turning into warm pleasant days as the sun rose.
The day of the races dawned with overcast skies and before long, about 3 hours before the first race, the snow started to fall! A ‘,crisis solving’, group was convened by the LOC and a plan of action agreed with WMRA officials. A large team of volunteers was rapidly assembled, armed with rakes for removing the snow from the race track in the steepest most difficult parts of the course. Options to introduce a delay or change the courses were considered, rejected, and the races went ahead as planned and on schedule.
The junior ladies race (4.2km &285m up & down) was won by Karissa Hawitt, a national cross country champion in her age group in England, in 17 minutes 24 seconds, followed closely by Turkan Bozkurt (TUR) and Mateja Kosovelj (SLO). The team gold went to Slovenia and 10 countries finished full teams.
The junior mens race (7.7km & 600m up & down) proved an even greater triumph for Slovenia as they took gold and silver individual medals with Mitja Kosovelj (35 minutes 41 seconds), and Peter Lamovec (36.01). They were followed by 15-year-old Sedat Gunen of Turkey in bronze medal position, a favourite for more medals in the junior age group in the future. Slovenia again carried off the team award and thus enjoyed the rewards for their encouragement of mountain running in Slovenia by starting with their youth. 11 countries finished full teams.
By the time the senior ladies race (7.7km & 600m up & down) started the blizzard was in full swing but the course volunteers worked at full stretch to keep the course clear. With several past World Trophy medallists and champions competing (Mudge SCO, Moon NZL, Guillot FRA, Zatorska POL, Pichrtova CZE, Confortola ITA,) their race appeared wide open. The medals would go to the ones wearing the correct footwear and brave enough to overcome the difficult conditions. Melissa Moon of New Zealand, champion in 2001, and Angela Mudge of Scotland, champion in 2000 fought it out in close company until Melissa charged ahead of Angela at the start of the descent to establish a lead, which she kept up with great determination until the finish line. This victory capped a wonderful weekend for New Zealand whose bid to stage the 2005 World Mountain Running Trophy had received the approval of the WMRA annual congress. Scotland with Angela in silver medal position and team mate Tracey Brindley having a brilliant descent to take bronze, carried off the team gold medal. After all, the weather in Scotland is not so much different to that in Alaska at times, so their team no doubt felt at home in the prevailing conditions! 15 countries finished full teams
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The final race for senior men (11.48km & 900m of up & down) was held the following day, by which time the snow had ceased and the track reasonably clear but it was still a winter wonderland on the mountain.
Marco De Gasperi (ITA) already 3 times senior champion in the up/down event started as the favourite to repeat his previous triumphs. He had to be in the very best of form to beat the young, and rapidly improving, Florian Heinzle (a member of the famous Heinzle family of mountain runners in Austria) by a mere 16 seconds. With the 2003 European champion, Marco Gaiardo in bronze medal position, Emanuele Manzi in 7th and Claudio Cassi in 13th the Italian men, for the 19th consecutive occasion, comfortably won the team event from England and Germany. 18 countries finished full teams.
So the two senior champions, Marco De Gasperi and Melissa Moon repeated their 2001 victories, which were won in entirely different conditions in Italy, proving that championship talent will out, whatever the situation.
This was a truly Alaska wilderness experience which all who took part will always remember.
The 2004 Trophy takes place on September 4th and 5th on the Winter Olympic (2006) Mountain in Sauze d’,Oulx, Italy, but we are absolutely confident that we will be racing well before any snowfall!
Danny Hughes
President WMRA
A brief summary of the decisions taken by Congress, and the presidents review of the past year.
The 2003 19th WMRA congress took place in Girdwood, Alaska, USA on 19th September 19th. New Zealand and England presented two excellent bids to stage the 2005 World Trophy. With the promise of significant travel support for competing teams, New Zealand were elected by 19 votes to 6. A new marketing director, Serge Moro-Sibilot of France, was elected to the WMRA council and his details are now shown under ‘,Council’, on our web page. Three new rules governing the World Trophy were approved. Two concern the course design and the third concerns age limits for those competing in the World Trophy junior races. This latter rule was introduced in order to keep the WMRA rules in line with recent changes in the IAAF rules concerning juniors. 26 member countries attended the congress which was welcomed by Bill Roe, president of ‘,USA Track & Field’, Here is the review of the past 12 months of WMRA activity which I presented to congress. 1. I would like to preface this report by thanking the organisers of the 2003 World Trophy here in the beautiful country of Alaska. I mention particularly, Brad Precosky, the Alaskan Mountain Runners, the Alyeska hotel and all other sponsors for their work and contributions. It is the first time we have held the event in the USA, only the second time in 19 years that we have been out of a European country, but I hope not the last time we come to America. It is perhaps understandable that we have fewer countries attending this year due to the expense of travelling to Alaska. Nevertheless, athletes from 26 countries are here which is a very satisfactory result. 2. It is sure that many athletes would have found it difficult to attend without the generous financial support of IAAF, which this year amounts to about $42,000 in travel assistance. In addition, the $10,000 administrative grant to the WMRA council has all been spent by adding $50/athlete to the IAAF support, making a travel subsidy of $250/athlete. I would also like to place on record our great appreciation of the administrative support given to WMRA by the IAAF led by Lamine Diack, and particularly to Pierre Weiss (IAAF general manager) with whom we have excellent relations and understanding. Last years IAAF cross country committee, chaired by Otto Klappert, also gave us their full support. There are many new faces on the new cross-country committee and we look forward to working with them and gaining their support also. 3. The biggest news item this year is that the IAAF rule 1 which defines what the world athletics body understands by ‘,athletics’, now includes mountain running alongside track & field, cross & road running and race walking. This is the result of a proposal by San Marino (Paula Carinato) to the IAAF congress in Paris. Standing alone, the proposal from such a small country would have had little chance of success. However, it received the full support of WMRA when I reported to the annual meeting of the IAAF cross country committee, and that committee was persuaded in turn to give it its full support which Otto Klappert did in his report to the IAAF council. As a result of this unified level of support the IAAF council recommended congress accept the proposal with the words. Mountain running is a constantly developing and growing discipline, both by the number of athletes and the quality of performances. In many regions of the world where there is no track in the neighbourhood, the practice of mountain running represents the first approach to athletics, therefore the definition of athletics would be more complete if this term was mentioned.’, One cannot emphasise too much the importance for our sport of this apparently small move. Now all federations will see that the sport of mountain running is a branch of athletics, which they can support in the knowledge that it has the approval of the world governing body of athletics. 4. A seminar entitled ‘,Mountain Running as a Branch of Athletics’, was staged by the International Athletic Foundation (a branch of IAAF) and conducted by WMRA in Innsbruck following last years World Trophy. It was attended by 22 delegates from 16 countries, and chaired by Pierre Weiss. A fine booklet containing the proceedings of the Seminar was produced by IAF and distributed to all athletic federations. There are still some copies available for those who have not yet received one. 5. July 2003 saw an excellent 2nd European mountain running championships brilliantly organised in Italy by Atletico Trento. We have two new European champions, Marco Gaiardo of Italy and member of the organising club, and Catherine Lallemand of Belgium. 22 Countries participated with 20 complete teams in the mens race and 15 complete teams in the womens race, The EAA offered to pay the travelling costs of one male and one female athlete from each European country. Erika Strasser (Austria) is the new chairman, and Danny Hughes, Tomo Sarf, Bruno Gozzelino and Wolfgang Muenzel of WMRA council are members of the EAA Mountain Running Commission. Bids from Poland and GB are under consideration for the 2004 championships and from Austria for the 2005 championships. 6. Another significant development over the past year has been the setting up of a Mountain Running Commission in Asia by the regional body of IAAF, the Asia Athletic Association. The president is Rukma Rana (Nepal) and the secretary is Rabi Rajkarnikar (Nepal). The commission is modelled on that of the EAA. 7. There were some disappointing aspects to the Masters event in Innsbruck Austria last year. Despite the lovely setting and overall enjoyment by the competitors (a hardy lot) the organisation was not up to the standard expected of a world championship. Financial miscalculations and shortfall resulted in the organisation (in this case the town of Innsbruck) failing to pay the contracted fee to WMRA making a significant loss to our budgeted income. (since presenting this report the fee has been paid) Great things are expected of this years Masters in Germany were a record entry of over 800 athletes has been received. 8. Following the difficulties over arrangements for a Grand Prix series in the past when two mountain running GP’s were staged, an agreement was reached with the event organisers and this year has seen just one WMRA Grand Prix. The mens first overall positions has already been decided with one competition to go the winner is Jonathan Wyatt (NZL). Izabella Zatorska (POL) and Antonella Confortola (ITA) being in contention for first place. 9. Our web page, www.wmra.info managed by Nick Russi of EAA continues to improve. Due to some dedicated work by Tomo Sarf it now contains a comprehensive statistics page on which you can instantly find the results of past world trophy and European events in a variety of different ways. The web page has a news section and by placing your e-mail address on the register you can receive news messages without the need to visit the page. This is useful because changes to the page can be flagged up to you without the need for you to visit the page to see if you have missed anything. 10. The WMRA newsletter, edited by Danny Hughes, was again produced (1,300 copies) and circulated throughout the world by IAAF, and to WMRA member athletes free of charge. 11. The WMRA calendar of international mountain races was produced at the EAA/IAAF calendar congress by Bruno Gozzelino and will be produced again for 2004. IAAF and EAA circulate it worldwide. Letters have been sent to many race organisers, but if you know of an international race that wants to appear in the calendar you should contact the secretary before the end of this month. Danny Hughes President WMRA 14.09.03