12th WORLD MASTERS MOUNTAIN RUNNING CHAMPIONSHIPS
BUHLERTAL, GERMANY. 19th MAY 2012
Report from the WMRA website:
1,018 master athletes finished the race at the 12th World Masters Mountain Running Championships in Germany: never in the past editions of the event have more than one thousand runners finished in this Competition.
This record of runners, with 802 men and 216 women at the end of the race, signalled the great success of this competition, very well organized by LOC of Buhlertal.
The 9.4 km mostly uphill course included a start on pavement through the town with a steep climb into the forested area of the mountainside with nearly 800 meters of vertical climbing. At the 11:00 a.m. start time (for category 70), temperatures were warm in the upper teens and by the final start group (35) the temperatures had reached over 20 with little breeze.
In total Germany won 20 gold medals of which 9 gold medals (exactly 50% of the total on offer) in the individual result, with 4 men and five women in gold-medal position. Italy won 4 gold medals (individual: 2 men and 1 women and 1 team men), followed by the Czech Republic with 2 gold, one for men, one for women. One gold medal was one by Slovakia, Austria, Switzerland and Russia. In the team competition, Germany won 11 gold medals out of 12: Italy won 1 team gold medal in M45 category.
Finally the total medals won by Germany were 43 (20 gold, 13 silver and 10 bronze); in second position Italy with a total of 20 medals (4 gold, 11 silver and 5 bronze), third Czech Rep. with 5 medals (2 gold and 3 bronze), Switzerland was fourth also with 5 medals (1 gold, 1 silver and 3 bronze) followed by Slovakia, Austria and Russia with one gold. France (3 silver and 1 bronze), Ireland (1 silver and 1 bronze), Scotland (2 bronze), Wales and Norway (1 bronze each) also won medals: so at the end 12 Countries had athletes on the podium.
Of the Welsh athletes competing, Swansea Harrier Sullivan Smith won Bronze in the MV/35 category, finishing 4th overall with a time of 43.13. Dic Evans (Cardiff AAC) was placed 12th in the MV/65 category (462nd overall) with a time of 60.04 and Sue Davies (Croft Ambrey) was 17th in the FV/45 category (613th overall) with a time of 63.49.