Skip to main content
WORLD MOUNTAIN RUNNING ASSOCIATION

Tag: mountainrunning

alice1

WMRA World Cup heads to Stellina: Fifth Race in the Seven-Race Series

Written by Tomo Sarf on . Posted in Latest News.

alice1 It’s “Stellinarace” time. On August 27, the fifth race in the 2017 WMRA World Cup takes place in Piedmont, in Susa (Turin) with the 29th Stellina Partisans’s Memorial. After four World Cup races, the leader on the men’s side is Petro Mamu, (ERI), while Alice Gaggi (ITA) (pictured above) leads the women’s results.

Mamu, newly minted Long Distance Mountain Running World Champion, will be one of the top runners of Stellinarace 2017. Although this is his debut in Susa, Mamu’s  recent results indicate he’ll be the pre-race favorite, with his strongest challengers hailing from the home country of Italy. European and Italian champion 2017 Xavier Chevrier could pose a threat to Mamu, but also Martin and Bernard Dematteis (Martin is the record holder of Stellinarace while Bernard has never won the race). Also expected to challenge are Alex Baldaccini, winner in 2015, and Francesco Puppi, silver medalist to Mamu earlier this month in Premana, Hannes Perkmann, Edward Young and Max Di Gioia. Other contenders include Julien Rancon (FRA), Gasper Bregar (SLO) and Miran Cver  (SLO), Simon Lechleitner (AUT). 

Sarah Tunstall (GBR), is a top contender in the women’s field. She won bronze in the world championship in Premana, and was victorious in the WMRA World Cup 2015. Tunstall will face Celine Iranzi (RWA) and  Italian Alice Gaggi, the leader of 2017 WMRA World Cup Race. Other Italians who will fight for the podium will be Samantha Galassi, Gloria Giudici and newcomer Camilla Magliano. Veteran Stellina competitor Antonella Confortola, will be among the runners in the field. Susa is where Confortola met her husband, New Zealander Jonathan Wyatt, the newly elected WMRA President. Wyatt, a multi-time winner at Stellinarace, is also slated to be on the start line.

Stellinarace 2017 will be the first edition without Adriano Aschieris, patron of the race, and the man who organized many Italian and World Championships of mountain running in Susa Valley. The last was the World Master Mountain Running Championships in 2016. Stellinarace has titled the trophy of the women’s race to Aschieris, and also has titled to his memory the regional mountain running youth championship that will be held on Saturday 26 in Susa. The memory of Aschieris, former President of Atletica Susa and Italian Athletics Federation of Piedmont, will forever live in Stellinarace.

Additional events in Stellina include, on August 26 at 11.00 a.m. in Costa Rossa, the official partisan celebration in memory of the Grange Sevine’s battle (1945). At 6:30 p.m., the official ceremony of delivery of bibs to the top runners at Countess Adelaide’s Castle.

More about Stellina Race HERE. Sky Sport 2016 Video coverage HERE.

The next race in the WMRA World Cup is the 44th Hochfeln Berglauf Race on September 24. The series culminates with the 38th Smarna Gora International Mountain Race on October 7.

Stellina 3

Content courtesty of Paolo Germanetto, and photos courtesy of Damiano Benedetto

 

 

 

FullSizeRender 2

Italy nearly sweeps gold at Long Distance Mountain Running Championships

Written by Tomo Sarf on . Posted in Latest News.

FullSizeRender 2Of the four gold medals awarded at today’s 14th World Long Distance Mountain Running Championships in Premana, Italy, the host country earned three along with one silver medal. The lone gold medal not awarded to Italy was earned by Giir di Mont course record holder Petro Mamu (ERI), who repeated his winning ways on the legendary 32-kilometer course finishing in a time of 3:12:52.

Second in the men’s field was Italy’s Francesco Puppi, followed by Pascal Egli (SUI).

With Puppi’s silver medal performance, and two more of his teammates finishing in the top ten, Italy was assured the senior men’s gold medal with a score of 14. USA followed for silver achieving a score of 39, led by Tayte Pollman in fourth, who at 21 was one of the younger athletes in the field. In bronze medal position was Czech Republic with 53 points just three points ahead of Romania.

This was the first year team place was used for scoring as opposed to cumulative finish time.

IMG 5522On the women’s side, it was a close competition between course record holder Kasie Enman (USA), who led through much of the race, and Italy’s Silvia Rampazzo. At the finish line, it was Rampazzo, who passed Enman after the 20-kilometer mark to take the lead and then broke the tape with a time of 3:56:45, less than one minute ahead of Enman. In third, Denisa Dragomir (ROM), posted a time of 3:59:34 to take the bronze.

With Italians Antonella Confortola and Stephanie Christel Jimenez finishing in 10th and 11th position respectively, Italy scored an impressive 22 points for gold. USA again saw silver on the podium with a score of 28, followed by Romania with 39 points.

In the few days leading up to the competition, the weather was incredibly hot for Premana, however, the preliminary weather forecast for Sunday indicated a storm was in the offing, thereby forcing organizers to create a plan B with a shortened course on race day if need be. The skies held for the 8:00 a.m. start, but the rains came less than 30 minutes into the race. Fortunately, the distant thunder and lightning never became a threat and the rains were intermittent, though sometimes heavy throughout the race.

The rain did not dampen the athlete’s spirits, or those of the spectators who could be found lining the course, not only at the finish line, but throughout the entire route.

At the awards ceremony, the top 10 men and women from the open race (which started five minutes after the World Championships division and included nearly 400 runners), received their prizes prior to the awarding of the World Championship medals and trophies. Following the prize giving, the WMRA flag was presented to next year’s host country, Poland, by WMRA president Jonathan Wyatt.

Complete results from the championships be found here.