WMRC 09 - Race preview
Bernard Dematteis - top Italian junior hope
With just three days left until the racing begins it is time to get serious for some of the world’s best mountain runners at the WMRC. Defending champ Jono Wyatt goes for number 7(!), but will come up against the strongest competition yet…
Tomo Sarf of the WMRA site writes:
The competition is expected to be at the highest level – the new generation represented by Italian brothers Dematteis and Elisa Desco, brother and sister Kosovelj from Slovenia, Kusuro from Uganda, Martina Strahl from Suisse and many others, are knocking on the door.
Jono Wyatt
On the other hand, the “established runners” such as Anna Pichrtova, Melisa Moon, Jonathan Wyatt, Marco Degasperi and Gaiardo and many others are still in excellent form… New countries have also joined the international mountain running family – times when almost half of the medals were reserved for Italians have passed – Turkish runners led by 3-times European champion Arslan are coming closer, runners from Africa and South America are becoming stronger…
Hat-trick man Arslan
Anna P, pretty untouchable right now
This year’s races are held on an up/down loop course (as opposed to even-numbered years when the events are held on uphill-only courses) with the senior men running approximately 13.02 km, the senior women and junior men running a distance slightly over 8.68 km, while the junior women run approximately 4.34 km.
Sarah Tunstall
The GB & NI team looks strong this year, with a particularly strong looking womens team, headed up by Sarah Tunstall. Men’s team member Nick Swinburn has just sent the following to MST:
“It’s all going well here. We’ve been training as a group and I have done some good work with Billy Burns and Robbie Simpson. The course is grassy and fast, so should suit me. I think we have a really good team this year – we all just want to get going now!”
Nick Swinburn - looking for a high placing in Italy
Full entry lists are here and you can follow all of the news at the WMRC site – expect full World Champs spills and thrills from MST early next week…
