“223 runners from 10 countries gathered on the start line of the 16th Grintovec race in a beautiful valley of Kamniska Bistrica 25km north from Ljubljana.
The weather was unpredictable &ndash, the day before the race a thunderstorm made the 10km long course with almost 2000m elevation gain wet and slippery and rain was also expected in the time when the runners were competing on the steep slopes of 2552 m high Grintovec, in this case, the race would be stopped after 6,5km for safety reasons. Luckily, the weather was not so bad, some of the runners even enjoyed the chilly temperatures.”
“For the first time, the organizer welcomed strong Kenyan runners competing for Austrian team Run2gether.
The late winner Kosgei has showed his excellent performances in the last years, when he was successful at some strong races, including GrossglocknerLauf and WMRA Grand Prix race at Feuerkogel. His result is the second fastest time on this taught course, in spite of the fact that the course was this year little longer.
Nejc Kuhar, second in 2013 in third in 2012 finished again on the second position, he is an expert for extreme steep races like km-vertical and this course suits him. As of the best European extreme alpinist skiers he walked all upper part of the course whilst all the other top runners were running. In the top ten we can find also two excellent British runners and Mitja Kosovelj, the defending World MR long distance Champion.
A short view to the start list of the women&rsquo,s race shows only one candidate for the top position: Mateja Kosovelj, silver medallist from Gap did not disappoint her fans and finished clearly in fort of the others.
Both course records will remain a challenge for the next years, Anna Pichrtova and Jonathan Wyatt will stay on the top positions of the &ldquo,all times top results&rdquo,, but the winning times from this year were very close.
The organizers did a really great job, all the runners enjoyed the hospitality and excellent course preparation with lots of well supplied refreshing stations along the course.
In the World Cup, after the third race, the situation is still fully open. Just few runners run more than one race and the remaining there races will be deciding.
The next station of the WMRA World Cup will be the race in Leogang (AUT) on next 31.August.

&nbsp,

Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA)

Source of the pictures:
On front page (from LOC):
– two winners: Kosovelj and Kosgei,
On second page: (from LOC):
– Kosgei close to the finish.

“