World Mountain Running Trophy

Welsh teams have returned home from the World Mountain Running Championships held in the resort of Ovronnaz, Switzerland, where 36 countries were represented. In the men’s race, one of the favourites Marco De Gasperi from Italy won the World title for the fifth occasion. The race alternates every year between an uphill only race to an up and down event and Marco won this demanding up and down event by almost 30 seconds to his nearest rival, Tesfay Yohannes from Eritrea. Scotland’s Joe Symonds just missed out on the Bronze medal having been caught on the line by an Eritrean athlete and was beaten into 4th by 0.02 of a second.

First Welsh man home was Tim Davies from Forden, Near Welshpool, and although not at his best following a long period of illness, gave another solid performance finishing in 35th position, 5 minutes behind the winner on what was described as a gruelling 3 lap course for the men. Andres Jones from Aberaeron in only his second Mountain race in several years had a determined run finishing in 50th position just over a minute behind Tim. Andres said that he now knows where he currently stands at a World level in Mountain running and he is determined to train specifically for this event and intends to improve in future years. The Welsh team finished in 15th position.

The Ladies race was also won by another previous World Champion, Anna Pichtova from the Czech Republic, again by an impressive 40 second gap. The first lady in for Wales was fast improving Anna Bartlett from Shrewsbury in 40th. Mari Todd from near Inverness, who had been up in the first twenty runners for the first half of the race faded on the second lap but still managed a strong finish to come home a few seconds behind Anna in 42nd place. The Senior Ladies finished in 14th position.

Geoffrey Kusuro of Uganda won the Junior Men’s race by 4 seconds having been chased all the way to the line by three of the Eritrea team who came home in 2nd,3rd and 4th. Ricky Challinor from Deeside in his first World event ran exceptionally well to finish in 46th position. Ricki has another two years in this age category and will benefit greatly from his experience. The second runner home fro Wales was Ian Withers from Cardiff in 50th with the team finishing in 13th position.

The Junior Ladies’ race was won by Lara Tamsett from Australia. Elinor Kirk from Swansea gave another solid performance in her third World Trophy finishing in 33rd position. Elinor still has another year in the junior age category. Bethan Woods from Blaenafon also had an excellent debut run in her first World event coming home 35 seconds behind Elinor in 40th position.

Full results can be found on http://services.datasport.com/2007/lauf/cmm/

Adrian Woods

Mountain Running Event Coach