The Welsh junior U18 girls and
boys were certainly made to work hard at Hausen Germany, where the girls ran 3 and
the boys 5 laps of the challenging .983km up and down course. Conditions, though,
were ideal, dry with no wind and cloud cover keeping the temperatures down.
In the junior girls race, the
Russians paid for going off too quickly on the first lap and were soon
overtaken by several of the athletes, including the eventual winner, Italy’s
Beatrice Curtabbi. The italian won in a time of 14:20, pacing the laps well as did her
compatriot Letizia Titon, who finished a close 2nd in 14:21, with
Polands Justyna 3rd in 14:26. The leading Welsh girl was Aberystwyth’s
Lauren Harries who paced the laps well to finish 17th in 15:48, with
Emily Downey 24th (17:07) on her first real involvement with international
mountain running, while last year's leading Welsh girl Aneura
Phillips had to make do with 26th place in a time of 18:20.
In the boys' race, the Russians
learnt from their compatriots' error of race judgement by pacing the five laps
well with Andrey Rusakov a clear winner in a time of 20:42, ahead of team mate
Sergey Zvonarev 21:16 with Scotland’s James Stevenson a fine 3rd in
a time of 21:20. The Welsh boys reversed the trial race result for the event
with Henri Williams 22nd in a time of 23:09, Chris Carpanini 29th
24:17 and Trial race winner Joshua Harries 31st in 24:42.
Though our girl’s team were 7th
of the eight teams competing and our boys 9th of ten teams, the
invaluable experience will help all the athletes with their development for the
future, with next year's event due to be held in Susa Italy. Mark Carpanini,
Lauren Harries and Henri Williams will still be eligible, along with the
promising Jamie Brock who ran in the one lap Pre-Youth Challenge race where he
was a clear winner.
ARWEL LEWIS
MOUNTAIN RUNNING SECRETARY
