Andrea Mayr from Austria and Petro Mamo as shining winners with new course records!
01/09/2014
“14 days before the 30th Mountain Running Championships in Casette di Massa (ITA), the international top stars of the mountain running came from 19 countries to a final form validation in Saalfelden Leogang.
The conditions were not ideal: Saturday&rsquo,s rain had made the course especially in the middle part extremely muddy and slippery, but cold foggy weather with no rain was still better than summer hot.
The results are witnessing how strong the competition was: in men&rsquo,s&rsquo, race 27 runners finished the race below 55minutes (in 2013 just 16) and 9 women below one hour (in 2013 only 2).
In the men&rsquo,s race the World , Cup leading 8 runners were on the start and in women&rsquo,s race five from top seven!
Both winners improved the course records, Petro Mamo, his own from 2013, for almost one minute and Andrea Mayr, the current European Champion, for almost five minutes!”
“In the men&rsquo,s race, three African runners started dictating high pace and after 1km, where the course turns into the forest and became steeper, they have already a decent advantage. Experienced mountain runners, Kiwi Wyatt and Suisse Schneider did not even try to follow, because they knew that they are stronger on the steep upper part.
The two Kenyans were caught at ¾, of the course, above the tree-line.
Only Eritrean Petro Mamo, the 2012 World Champion, this moment one of the strongest mountain runners in the world, did not allow any surprise and he crossed the finish line almost 2 minutes before the second &ndash, Jonathan Wyatt, six time world champion, who announced his come-back at the age of 42 years.
Two races before the end of the World Cup, the situation in the men&rsquo,s competition is completely open &ndash, there are lots of runners who can still enter the top 3 positions. If Petro Mamo will run the World Championships and the final Smarna gora race, nothing could stop him to win the World Cup 2014.
Solo racing with the ladies
In the women&rsquo,s race, multiple World and European champion Andrea Mayr run solo race.
Mateja Kosovelj of Slovenia was her closest opponent, but still 2 and half minutes behind &ndash, they finished first and second like in July on the European Championships.
The third, Kenian Murigi, as excellent road runner started very fast, but was not competitive on the upper steep part. In March 2014 she finished Milano half-marathon in excellent 1:10:52.
It looks like Mayr and Kosovelj will fight also for the final win in the World Cup.
Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA)
Source of the pictures LOC
On front page:
– Austrian Andrea Mayr,
On second page:
– Eritrean Pedro Mamo,
– podium of winner men,
– podium of winner women
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