Author: wmra_wp

“Athletes from 27 countries around the world are set to descend on North Wales this Saturday (September 12) for the World Masters Mountain Running Championships.
More than 600 athletes aged 35-79 have registered the World Masters event from countries including, Great Britain and Northern Ireland, Spain, Norway, Czech Republic, South Africa, Austria, France, Germany, Slovakia, Sweden, Italy, New Zealand, Finland, Kenya, Colombia, Republic of Ireland, Australia, Bulgaria, USA, Singapore, Hungary, Poland, Mongolia, Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium and Canada.
It kicks-off an exciting week-long series of races and events in Betws-y-Coed which culminates in the World Mountain Running Championships, sponsored by Arriva Trains Wales, on September 19.
”
“Unlike in previous years when the World Masters Mountain Running Championships were held at a separate location and date to the World Mountain Running Championships, the two events have been brought back together for 2015.
Conwy County Borough Council are organising both events with support from Run 4 Wales, Welsh Athletics and British Athletics.
Steve Brace, head of event delivery for Run 4 Wales, commented: &quot,By having the World Masters and World Mountain Running Championships on consecutive weekends we hope to create a special environment for athletes and spectators.
&quot,We are delighted to welcome athletes from across the world to Betws-y-Coed and we are sure this area of North Wales, and the course we have designed, will not disappoint those who have travelled from far and wide to be here.
&quot,The masters championships is an inspiring event with athletes of all ages taking part and I am sure local people will give them the sort of warm welcome Wales is famous for.&quot,
The men’s and women’s masters age groups from 35 to 50 will compete over the long 10.6km course with +/- 500m of elevation gain while the age groups from 55 to 75 race over the shorter 8.7km course with around +/- 450m of elevation gain.
There will also be an open race for ages 35+, including an 80+ age group if needed, over the short course.
The World Masters Mountain Running Championships will be formally opened with a ceremony on Friday 11th and closed with presentations from 6pm on Saturday 12th.
Other activities taking place during the week following the Masters Championships and in the build up to the World Mountain Running Championships include film screening and talks, featuring 6-time world champion Jonathan Wyatt and ultra-distance mountain runners Nicky Spinks and Steve Birkinshaw, school races, open races, which include an uphill only race to the summit of Moel Siabod on the Wednesday and an international mountain running coaches’ forum.
Full World Mountain Running Championships event information and details on the routes can be found via the World Masters and the World Championships websites. Entries to events start from as little as &pound,10 and the organising teams from UK Athletics, Welsh Athletics and Conwy County Borough Council are confident that racing will be highly competitive and have added international flavour as runners are expected from across the globe.
World Masters Mountain Running Championships and the Open Event programme entries are now live and can be accessed via www.wmrcwales.org/open-races.
Further updates on the 2015 World Mountain Running Championships are available via the WMRC Wales website www.wmrcwales.org, Twitter and Facebook pages.

“

“Many top runners had chosen the fourth World Cup race as test before the World Championships and some specialists for uphill-only races came here to show their top performance.&nbsp,
The top field was really strong, probably the strongest ever at the World Cup race of this year.
Runners from 20 countries participated at this traditional Austrian&nbsp,race.”
“Like always Top African runners from Kenya, Eritrea and this time also from Marocco started very fast.
The late winners Kidane and&nbsp, Mamo run all the time close, almost shoulder to shoulder and at the end, the more experienced Kidane was stronger.&nbsp, Kidane clocked&nbsp, time 38:39.
Mamo, the 2014 winner and course record holder finished second, just one second behind.
Third position for other kenyan Francis Wangari (with time of 39:23) in front of Eritrean Yosif Tekle (fourth with time of 39:26). First european at the finish was English Robbie Simpson with time of 39:38.
In the women&rsquo,s race Confortola started very carefully after her injury at European Championships. From kilometre to kilometre she was faster and at the middle of the course she caught the leading Sarah Tunstall and in the last part experienced&nbsp, Italian was stronger. Confortola clocked time 47:46, Sarah Tunstal second finished with time of 48:07, Third position for Hungarian Timea Merenyi, who defends her leadership in the World Cup, with time of 48:16, Austrian Melanie and Karin Freitag finished fourth and fifth with time of 48:49 and 50:43.
Due to extreme weather conditions the organizer had to shorten the course for about 1,5 km &ndash, the initial loop in the village and last kilometre were deleted.&nbsp, After all those changes the course was 6,3 km long&nbsp, with 1020 elevation gain, the same for women and men.
After four stage in the 17. WMRA World Cup, situation is:
women: 1. Timea Merenyi (HUN) points 280, 2. Sarah Tunstall (GBR) points 180, 3. Karmen Klancnik (SLO) points 165,
men:&nbsp, 1. Andrew Douglas (GBR) points 185, David Schneider (SUI) points 180, 3. Petro Mamu (ERI) points 180.

&nbsp,

Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA)

Source of the pictures:
on front page (Tomo Sarf):
– Abraham Kidane, winner men,
on second page (Tomo Sarf):
– Antonella Confortola, winner women

“

“

This coming Sunday, 06.09.2015, the 7th Asitzgipfel-Mountain Run will be held in Leogang.
The Asitzgipfel-Mountain Run is the only World Cup Mountain Run race this year in Austria with WMRA and IAAF-status, which is why the proportion of top athletes is expected to be very high.
The run is over 8 kilometres with 1,126 m difference in altitude and, in some parts, a 32% gradient, which is sure to demand everything from the athletes.
The finish is on the Grosser Asitz (1.914m).

”
“

Last year’s men’s winner Petro Mamu from Eritrea, who holds the record for the course and was Mountain Run World Champion in 2012, is confirmed to start.
But he will face tough competition. Abraham Kidane (ERI) has also registered, having come sixth at the Mountain Run WC last year, one place ahead of Petro Mamu.
Also participating are the two Scots Andrew Douglas (5th place Mountain Run EC 2015 and leader in the World Cup Series 2015) and Robbie Simpson (4th place Mountain Run EC and British Mountain Run Champion).
Others such as Khaid Laplaq from Marocco, Isaac Toroitich Kosgei (KEN), Yossief Tekle (ERI), David Schneider (SUI / vice-European Mountain Run Champion 2015), Simon Lechleitner (LG Decker Itter / Austrian Half Marathon National Champion 2015) and a few more top athletes from Slovenia, Italy and Germany can also be expected to have a say when it comes to grabbing the top spots.
For the women, British Mountain Run Champion and winner of the Grand Ballon Sarah Tunstall (GBR) is on the startline, as are the holders of the three top spots in the World Cup Series Timea Merenyi (HUN), Karmen Klancnik (SLO) and Dominika Wisniewska-Ulfik (POL). Antonella Confortola (ITA) is also likely to be among the top finishers.
Remains to be seen who will deal the best with the forecast difficult and cold conditions and the challenging course.
In any case, we wish all entrants a great and injury-free race!

&nbsp,

Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA

&nbsp,

Source of the pictures:
– on front page (LOC):
– Bergsee Asitz Leogang,
on second page (Tomo Sarf):
– Petro Mamu in action last year

“

“Six Nations, with 48 runners (22 women and 25 men), was present at the 7th ABAF (Balkan) Mountain Running Championships 2015 held this year at Busteni, Romania.
Five Federations won medals.
Romanian Team triumphed winning ten medals in total: 7 gold medals (all the individuals and 3 in the team result) plus 1 silver and 2 bronze,, Turkey won five medlas: 1 gold medal, 3 silver and 1 bronze, five medals also for Bulgaria with 2 silver and 3 bronze, instead Moldova kept two medals (2 silver) and Croatia one medal (1 bronze). FYR of Macedonia, the sixth Nation present, didn”t won any medal.
Good organisation was guarenteed to this important ABAF event by FRA that in the future could host also events, under WMRA or EAA regulations: Ion Sandu, FRA new President, want to promote mountain running inside his Country and also improve organisation of the competition. Specially for mountain running in Romania there are wonderful venue where top class hotel are working and many facilities are available for organising international mountain running Championships: a few years ago WMRA President Bruno Gozzelino visited Romania togehter some Romanian Officials like Traian Badea, FRA Vice President, and he confirm this situation.
”
“Coming back to- the 7. ABAF Mountain Running Championships 2015, Romanian runners won indivdually all the four races.
In the junior women&nbsp, race, Andreea Alina Piscu (Romania) clocked 25:15 for winning in front of Atalay Bahar (Turkey) second with time of 25:34 and Dilyana Minkina (Bulgaria) third with time of 26:28.
Romania won gold medal in team junior women result with 10 points, silver medal for Turkey with 15 points.
In the junior men race, Gergely Bogya (Romania – time 43:44) was the Balkan Champion 2015, and two Turkish, Yalcin Tekin (time 44:11) and Celik Osman (44:28) finished second and third.
In the junior men team result Turkey kept gold medal with 11 points, defeating Romania silver medallist with 12 points, third and bronze medal Bulgaria with 25 points. Croatia finished foourth with 35 points.
Romanian Denisa Ionela Dragomir dominated senior women race finished her race with time of 48:01.40. All remember that Dragomir was two time European Junior Champion in mountain running (2010 and 2011) and also bronze medallist in the WMRA World Mountain Running Championships 2011.
Silver medallist was Antoniya Marinova, Bulgaria, with time of 49:30 and bronze medallist was Cristiana Alexandra Ghita Romania with time of 49:49.
Romania won gold medal in team senior women result with 9 points, silver medal for Bulgaria with 13 points and bronze medal for Croatia with 30 points.
At the end in the senior men race Romanian Ionut Alin Zinca became Balkan Mountain Running Champion 2015 run the track with time of 1:01:18.30. Nobody was able to compete with him, who was third at the European Mountain Running Championships 2012.
The gap of the second finisher was more then three minutes, but the greatest surprise was just Vitalie Ghoerghita from Moldova who won silver medal with time of 1:04:43.90: is it probably the first internatinal medal for Moldova&nbsp, in mountain running.
Third was Szabolcs Istvan Gyorgy again from Romania who finished about five minutes later the winner (exactly time was 1:06:12.40).
Once more, Romania won gold medal in team senior men result with 10 points, silver medal for Moldova with 11 points and bronze medal for Bulgaria with 26 points.

Edited from Bruno Gozzelino (WMRA)

&nbsp,

&nbsp,Source of the pictures Cristian Barbu
&nbsp, on front page:
&nbsp, – nations at opening ceremony,
&nbsp, on second page:
&nbsp, – individual senior women podium,
&nbsp, – team senior women podium,
&nbsp, – individual senior men podium.

“

“Success for Slovenian runners on their home soil: Nejc Kuhar and Karmen Klan&#269,nik were the fastest among 220 runners from 14 countries.
The weather forecast for the day of the race was promising a major change &ndash, after almost one month of African summer heat, rain should come during the night before the race and chill the air for more than 20deg &ndash, and the meteorologists did not make a mistake.
It was a drizzly day with slippery rocks all along the way from the Kamniska Bistrica valley to the Grintovec summit.
The runners had to climb for almost 2000m in less than 10km.
Everybody who knows what does it mean has a respect to this race and to all the runners who beat this challenging course.
”
“The Grintovec race was a part of the World Cup for the sixth time and traditionally also a part of Slovenian Mountain Running Cup.
In the men&rsquo,s division, the two Kenyan runners pushed very fast just after beginning &ndash, they are both fast runners and the first 2 km are not so steep. Only European vice champion Schneider and Nejc Kuhar, Slovenian expert for such steep courses, could follow, but with small delay.
At the end of the road /after 2km/, the advantage was almost one minute, but on the steep part to the Saddle Njorge paid the price of the fast beginning: he was caught by the 2 followers.
In the second part Kuhar destroyed the experienced Suisse runner with some rhythm changes and caught the leading Kenyan runner about 1km to the finish.
He was stronger it this steep part and crossed the finish line in excellent time 1:19:57.
So he had realised his dreams: after third place in 2012 and second places in 2013 and 2014, he finally won this demanding race.
In the women&rsquo,s division, the race was decided in the last half kilometre, where local Karmen Klan&#269,nik felt stronger than second placed Hungarian Timea Merenyi, who is leading in the World Cup ranking.&nbsp,
The next stage of the 17th edition of the WMRA&nbsp,World Cup 2015&nbsp,will be Leogang. AUT on the 6th September 2015.

Edited from Sarf Tomo (LOC)

Source of the pictures LOC
&nbsp,on front page:
&nbsp,- the two winners, Nejc Kuhar and Karmen Klan&#269,nik,
&nbsp,on second page:
&nbsp,- last kilometer of the race,
&nbsp,- Hungarian Timea Merenyi, at this moment leader in the women World Cup 2015.

“

“After the European and NACAC Mountain Running Championships, more than 200 runners from 15 countries have entered the 17th edition of &ldquo,The Grintovec Mountain running race&rdquo,, the third stage of WMRA 2015 Mountain Running World Cup, that will be held on Sunday 26th July in Kamnik, Slovenia.
The course is a real mountain course, taking the normal trail from the Kamniska Valley (602m) to the Grintovec summit (2.558m).
Almost 2000m elevation gain on less than 10km, normal hikers need 6 hours to reach the summit and another six to go back.
Course record holders are Jonathan Wyatt (NZL)&nbsp,and Anna Pichrtova (CZE)&nbsp,with 1:15:43 and 1:31:50&nbsp,(both in 2006) and it seems that those records will last for a long time.
”
“There will be lots of famous runners among the runners at the start.
In the men&rsquo,s division, David Schneider from Suisse, current European vice-champion will try to cross the finish line in front of Kenyan runners chaired by Wangari, third in 2014.
Nejc Kuhar and Simon Alic, local experts for steep climbs, will surely try to show their strength on the home mountain. Especially Kuhar is motivated to improve his second place from 2014 and third from 2012 and lower the Slovenian course record below 1:20.&nbsp,
Eritrean Azerya Teklay could candidate at the top positin.
Surprise could also come from Great Britain, Japan or Italy, Croatia, Hungary&hellip,.
In the women’s category, Slovenian athletes could be the favorites for the victory, but a different result is i always possible.
After almost one month with temperatures just below 40&deg,C the weather forecast promises some storms during the night before the race and runners friendly weather conditions.

&nbsp,

&nbsp,

&nbsp,

Edited from Tomo Sarf (LOC)

Source of the pictures&nbsp,LOC
on front page:
– leaflet of the event,
on second page:
– Grintovec mountain (2.558m),
-mr. Du&scaron,an Pape

“Three gold medals for Canada and one gold (team women) for USA at the 12th NACAC Mountain Running Championships 2015.
At NACAC Mountain Running Championships at Cypress Mountain, host country Canada swept the top four places in the men&rsquo,s race and also placed their top woman in gold-medal position. However, the U.S. women kept their streak alive to again win team gold.
”
“First across the line in 54:09, was 31-year-old Nick Elson from Squamish, Canada who just last week paid a visit to Cypress Mountain to run parts of the 11-kilometer course that he was unfamiliar with.
He had run some sections of the course in the past during the Knee Knacker Trail Race so had some experience with the terrain. But Elson, in spite of winning the 2014 Squamish 50 miler, and placing a solid fifth at the recent Mount Marathon in Seward, Alaska, had never represented Team Canada in international mountain racing. &ldquo,I raced for Team Canada as a ski mountaineer this past season and finished 37th at the World Cup in Verbier, Switzerland. I think ski mountaineering is helpful in transitioning to mountain racing,&rdquo, said Elson. &ldquo,For ski mountaineering, you&rsquo,re basically trained to go uphill fast.&rdquo,
At today&rsquo,s race, Elson showed equal prowess on the downhill. &ldquo,I was in fourth until the top of Black Mountain. Chris Swanson (teammate) was really strong climbing up Black Mountain. It was in full sun and I was really struggling to keep those guys in sight. On the other side of the climb, it was much more technical and on the downhill I was able to take the lead. On the final descent, I think that is where I increased my lead. I think today my downhill was stronger than my uphill.&rdquo,
Asked whether he considered himself an uphill or downhill specialist, Elson said, &ldquo,On a good day, hopefully I&rsquo,m somewhat equal.&rdquo,
The Canadian men finished all four of their team members, before the first U.S. runner crossed the line therefore creating a sweep of the podium and gold for Team Canada. Second for Team Canada was Kristopher Swanson in 55:32, and in third Shaun Stephens-Whale in 56:30.
Josh Eberly was first for Team USA in fifth overall timed in 57:29. Close behind was fellow team member Ryan Woods in 57:42, and Jordan Chavez in 1:00:08 to round out the scoring.
For local Vancouverite, 32-year-old Chessa Adsit-Morris, the women&rsquo,s victory was unexpected. &ldquo,I was not prepared for that &ndash, winning. The U.S. ladies kicked my ass last year at World and I just assumed they would do the same here. I&rsquo,m very pleased with my result &ndash, an unexpected surprise.&rdquo,
Adsit-Morris led from the start. &ldquo,My plan was to take it out from the gun and push as hard as I could to the top of the climb and then hopefully have enough of a lead for the downhill. I had a bit of an ankle injury last month and wasn&rsquo,t sure how much I could push the downhill.&rdquo,
Having never been on the course, Adsit-Morris acknowledged, &ldquo,The course was a bit more technical than I was expecting. I think it was a bit more technical that most people were expecting. Sometimes I find that it&rsquo,s better for me (not to preview the course), so I just take it as it comes. I decided not to pre run it and just go run hard.&rdquo,
Adsit-Morris clocked a 1:06:56 and was followed 16 seconds later by top U.S. runner Megan Roche who led her team to gold. In third was second U.S. runner and 2013 World Mountain Running junior champion Mandy Ortiz in 1:08:16, followed by Canada&rsquo,s Sarah Bergeron-Larouche in fourth in 1:09:01. Megan Lizotte finished fifth for Team USA timed in 1:09:51, to round out the top three scoring members of Team USA with 10 points, just one point ahead of Team Canada.
&ldquo,I&rsquo,m just really happy to have a win,&rdquo, said Canadian team leader Adrian Lambert who also was the NACAC organizer this year. &ldquo,It was a very competitive race. The women&rsquo,s race was great and I&rsquo,m obviously very pleased with how our men did. And what a day for it too. Simply beautiful.&rdquo,
USA team leader Richard Bolt echoed Lambert&rsquo,s thoughts on the weather, &ldquo,The sunny, warm weather was a big improvement over 2012 when we had cold, rain, and foggy conditions at the same location at the same time of year.
&ldquo,The overall festive atmosphere of the 5 Peaks Race (which hosted the race along with its 6k sport race, 11k enduro, and kids races) is a really good environment to have the NACAC Championships. The course was very technical and challenging at Cypress Mountain and more technical than many World Mountain Champs or US Mountain Champs courses. I think our U.S. athletes raced well overall. Some athletes may not have raced as fast as they hoped, but nobody had a bad race.&rdquo,
This is the twelfth consecutive year that the NACAC Mountain Championship have been held, with the event rotating being the U.S., Mexico and Canada.
This is the fourth time for Canada to serve as host, having been the venue for the championships in 2007, 2010, (at Canmore, Alberta), and 2012 at Cypress Mountain.
Nancy Hobbs represented the WMRA, and Bill Roe, USATF Long Distance Running chairperson, was also on site at the event.

Edited from Nancy Hobbs

Source of the pictures&nbsp,Nancy Hobbs (WMRA)
on front page:
– Nick Elson (CAN) at the finish,
on second page:
– Chessa Adsit-Morris (CAN) during the race,
-National teams partecipating.

&nbsp,

&nbsp,

“

“The 2015 NACAC Mountain Running Championships will take place at Cypress Mountain, http://cypressmountain.com/ located just north of Vancouver, BC, Canada, on Saturday, July 18.&nbsp,
Cypress Mountain Ski Area was one of the venues at the 2010 Vancouver/Whistler Olympics.
This is the twelfth consecutive year that the NACAC Mountain Championship have been held, with the event rotating being the U.S., Mexico, and Canada http://mountainrunning.ca/ .
This is the fourth time for Canada to serve as host, having been the venue for the championships in 2007, 2010, (at Canmore, Alberta), and 2012 at Cypress Mountain. ”
“The course will be an up-and-down course to mirror the format of the World Mountain Running Championships which are up and down in odd-numbered years and uphill-only in even numbered years.
The route will include loops at the top of the ski hill, rather than running from Horseshoe Bay to the top &ndash, the route in 2012. The proposed course can be viewed at this link.
http://5peaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/Cypress-Enduro.pdf
According to race organizer Adrian Lambert, &ldquo,The course features some excellent terrain and should be a challenging course.&rdquo,
Both individual and team competition are staged, with nations competing head-to-head with one another.
Teams are comprised of up to four men and four women with the top three finishers scoring for their respective country.&nbsp, There will be a prize purse of $3000 distributed to the top five men and women with $500 for first, $400 for second, $300 for third, $200 for fourth and $100 for fifth.
The Canadian team was announced earlier this month: http://mountainrunning.ca/news.php?id=81 (there is one substitution with Marianne Hogan replacing Megan Franks), and Team USA is listed here: http://trailrunner.com/trail-news/team-usa-announced-for-nacac-mountain-champs/.
Nancy Hobbs will represent the WMRA on site at the event.

&nbsp,

Edited from Nancy Hobbs

&nbsp,

on front page:
– view of Cypress Mountain.

“

“Welsh Athletics and England Athletics are delighted to host the 1st International Mountain Running Coaches Forum.&nbsp, Endorsed by the WMRA, on next 17th September (7-9 p.m.) in St Georges Hotel at Llandudno.
This two hour event will provide an opportunity for international coaches to come together to listen to two stimulus presentations followed by time to share thoughts and ideas.
Attendance at the event is free and light refreshments will be provided.
In order to ensure the interactive nature of the forum places are limited and will be allocated on a first come first served registration basis, with a maximum of 2 places per country – those interested should register their interest with Tom Marley – tom.marley@welshathletics.org as soon as possible.
The seminar is organised in the week among the 15th WMRA/WMA Master World Mountain Running Championships scheduled on Saturday 12th September and the 31st WMRA World Mountain Running Championships staged on Saturday 19th September: both events wil be run at Betws-Y-Coed, a venue near to Llandudno.
Stimulus presentations will be given by Nancy Hobbs and Steve Vernon.
”
“Nancy Hobbs &ndash, Adapting technique for optimal ascending and descending
Nancy Hobbs has been running trails and directing running events since the mid-80s and her articles and photographs about the sport have been published in magazines including Runner’s World, Running Times, Trail Runner, and Ultrarunner.
She is currently a national trail running examiner (http://www.examiner.com/trail-running-in-national/nancy-hobbs).
She is the founder and executive director of the American Trail Running Association, a council member of the World Mountain Running Association, manager of the US Mountain Running Team, and chairperson of the USATF Mountain Ultra Trail Council. She was inducted into the Colorado Running Hall of Fame in 2013.
She lives in Colorado Springs, where she is still a very active runner, last winning bronze in the world masters in 2013
Steve Vernon &ndash, Transition of endurance training for mountain running success
Steve Vernon is an 8 times English National Cross Country medallist.&nbsp,
He has represented Great Britain in the mountains, including 5th at the European Championships in 2013, leading the British men to team silver and at cross country multiple times over the last 15 years.
His focus is now on coaching elite athletes and his current athletes are some of Britain&rsquo,s best endurance runners across a variety of surfaces and events.
Steve lives in the Peak District in Derbyshire and works as an Elite Performance Manager for New Balance.

&nbsp,

Edited from&nbsp,Sarah Rowell&nbsp,

&nbsp,on front page:
– view of Llandudno.

“

“In Zermatt, Switzerland, a record 22 countries participated in the 12th World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships with five countries earning medals: for the first time the competition was also Championships for individuale and not only for team (in the past year s the same event in fact was called Challenge).
Italian Tommaso Vaccina and Swiss Martina Straehl are World Long Distance Champion 2015 and in the team Italy for men and Switzerland for women are the World Long Distance Champion 2015.
Italy wom medal table with five medals: 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze. Hosting Country switzerland was second with 2 gold. The USA third with 2 silver and 1 bronze medals. France took 1 silver medal and Kenya 1 bronze.”
“

In the men race, the first part of the competition saw as leaders Kenyan Francis Maina Ngare and American Andy Wacker, but in the second part of the race Italian Tommaso Vaccina (who finished sixth last year at the same competition in Colorado, USA) crossed over the two runners for winning the world title after 3 hours 1 minute and 51 seconds. Exactly two minute later, finished his race USA Andy Wacker, keeping silver medal: he last year was third in the same competition. Thanking a strong final, bronze medal was gained from another Italian. Francesco Puppi, who scored time 3h04,14. Fourth a Bulgarian Mustafa Shaban Aliosman (time 3h07:12), fifth Italian Massimo Mei (time 3h07:55), sisxth Slovenian Mitja Kosovelj (one of the favorite with time of 3h08.54).
Italy won also the world long distance team title, having placed three athletes in the top five to take gold with champion Tommaso Vaccina, third-place Francesco Puppi and Massimo Mei:total time was 9hours 14 minutes and 1 seconds. Team USA, led by silver medalist Andy Wacker, who posted a time of 3:03:51, also earned the silver team medal with a total time of 9 hours 45 minutes and 22 second. Team Kenyan, looking solid early in the race, faded as the climbs began, but still managed to score the bronze medal: total time for Kenya team was 9 hours 53 minutes and 30 seconds. 12 complete men’s&nbsp,teams are in the result.&nbsp,
In the women race, Swiss Martina Straehli confirm the fact that she was a favorite. She became World Long Distance Champion 2015 running a wondeful race and finishing scored time of 3 hours 21 minutes and 38 seconds. Second at the finish was more than eight minutes latwer, French&nbsp, Aline Camboulives who cllocked 3h29:45. Third was Italian Catherine Bertone, who run in the time of 3h33:56. USA Stevie Kremer arrived in fourth position with time of 3h35:38.
As other two Swiss runners, Daniela Gassmann Bahr and Jasmin Nunige finished fifth and sixth, Switzerland took World long distance title in the women team: the host country dominated with four athletes in the top ten and a total time of 10 hours 37 minutes and 29 seconds.&nbsp,Catherine Bertone led Italy to a silver medal team finish posting a time of 3:33:56, and a total time for Italy of 10 hours 56 minutes and 58 seconds.&nbsp,The U.S. women, led by fourth-place finisher Stevie Kremer took the bronze with a total time of 11 hours 13 minutes and 23 seconds.
The temperatures, like the altitude, increased through the day making hydration and fueling even more important for the nearly 2000 runners who took part in the Championships (a total of 48 women and 55 men representing 22 countries), and the associated events which included an open marathon, half marathon, ultra and marathon relay.
At the 8:30 a.m. race time, temperatures hovered in the upper 20&deg, under a cloudless sky in St. Niklaus located at an elevation of 1.116 meters. The course wound up the valley through the town of Zermatt, elevation 1.616 meters, which marked the halfway point in the race. When the first runners came through Zermatt, the temperatures were already reaching the 30&deg,. After a total ascent of 1944 meters, and 444 meters of descent, competitors arrived at the finish line at Riffelberg, elevation 2585 meters.

full results are available at the following link:
men:
http://services.datasport.com/2015/lauf/zermattmarathon/RANG201.HTM
women:
http://services.datasport.com/2015/lauf/zermattmarathon/RANG202.HTM
team men:
http://services.datasport.com/2015/lauf/zermattmarathon/RANG203.HTM
team women:
http://services.datasport.com/2015/lauf/zermattmarathon/RANG204.HTM

&nbsp,

Edited from Bruno Gozzelino (WMRA)

Source of the pictures&nbsp,Tomo Sarf and Nancy Hobbs (WMRA)
on front page:
– Italian Tommaso Vaccina,
on second page:
– podium individual men,
– Swiss Martina Straehl,
– podium individual women.

&nbsp,

&nbsp,

“