News
Trofeo Vanoni and Vanoni Femminile Team Announcement
24/09/2022 00:00, In Blog / Fell & Mountain /
65th TROFEO VANONI (International Mountain Running Relay Race)
39th VANONI FEMMINILE (International Mountain Running Individual Ladies Race)
MORBEGNO, ITALY
SUNDAY 23rd OCTOBER 2022
WALES TEAM SELECTIONS
SENIOR MEN
Tom Wood (Eryri Harriers)
Matthew Roberts (Calder Valley)
Gavin Roberts (Calder Valley)
SENIOR WOMEN
Katie Reynolds (Eryri Harriers)
TEAM MANAGER
Arwel Lewis
Wales will once again be competing as they have done since 2010 in the famous “TROPHY ENZIO VANONI” which is now in its 65th year and the 39th “VANONI FEMMINILE”.
The event attracts competitors from all over Europe and is now a well-established international Mountain Running event which is different in many ways in that it is a three-man relay 7,250km/435m race where there are individual leg awards as well as team awards while the women compete as individuals in the 5km/248m race. Last year’s Trofeo Vanoni Team winners France will once again be determined to retain the trophy that they have keenly contested and won several times in the past.
The event has been twinned with the Snowdon International race since 1980 whereby the host club CSI Morbegno teams compete in the Snowdon International Race and vice versa, the Snowdon International Race send a team (usually the first three male and female finishers in their race) to compete in the Trofeo Vanoni. CSI Morbegno is also twinned with the Llanberis local running club, The Eryri Harriers who have regularly sent teams to compete in the event.
The Welsh male team for this year’s event has a mixture of youth and experience and all three competed in the event last year with Matthew Roberts being the most experienced athlete, making his tenth appearance at the Trofeo Vanoni since his debut with Eryri in 2007 and a PB for the course in 2016 of 31:46, Matt will run the 2nd leg after 1st leg runner Tom Wood (Eryri) who debuted in the event last year with a very good time of 31:31 and has since put in some very impressive performances on the mountains culminating in his recent British Fell Running Championships success in the Black Mountains race as has the anchor leg runner Gavin Roberts (Calder Valley) who finished 4th overall in the British Championships and is in much improved form than last year when he completed the Vanoni event in 34:00. All three will be looking to emulate the Welsh Men’s teams best cumulative time for the event of 1hr 37min 21secs.
Katie Reynolds (Eryri) will be debuting in the event as the sole Welsh female representative, Katie has shown very good form over short and long distances this year.
Katie will do well to get anywhere near the female Welsh record for the event of 23:14 set by Bronwen Jenkinson (Eryri) in 2016.
More information on the event can be found here.