Venezuelan triumph at the 5th CONSUDATLE Mountain Running Championships 2010.

"The Venezuelan athletes dominated the 5th edition of South American Mountain Running Championships 2010, in the beautiful scenery covered in snow in the Cerro Arco, near the City of Mendoza, Argentina, ,in the area of the Precordillera in the Andes. In this year this area has got the greatest precipitation of snow in the past 40 years.
Both races, men and women, were ,dominated by ,athletes of Venezuela (Pedro Puente and Cruz Salazar, respectively). ,
It is important to underline that this is the 5th edition of the South American Mountain Running Championships.

In fact the other four edition , were held: on 19^th August 2006, the 1^st CONSUDATLE Mountain Running Championships in Cali (Colombia), on 12^th August 2007 the 2^nd CONSUDATLE Mountain Running Championships in Caracas (Venezuela), on 27^th July 2008, the 3^rd CONSUDATLE Mountain Running Championships in Caleu - Valle del Elqui (Chile) and on , 1^st August 2009 the 4^th CONSUDATLE Mountain Running Championships in Quito (Ecuador).

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The alliance that has kept the Venezuelan Federation of Athletics with Gatorade and the company Hipereventos in organizing for the sixth consecutive year the national circuits mountain racing in Venezuela and assistance for the same time to the South American Championships has successfully raised the level of Venezuelan runners who - with courage - have made this important victory for their Country.
In fact, in the men race, Pedro Puente (from Merida state , in Venezuela) won the title of South American Mountain Running champion 2010 with a time of 52.25, whilst the Venezuelan (representative of the Miranda state) Alexis Martinez Salazar finished in second place with time of 53.04. The podium was completed by the Venezuelans to arrive in the third place Neido Guillen (also him coming from Merida state) with time of 53.20.
The men achieved the first three places and the team rankings (gold medal, of course), followed by Argentina (silver medal) and Brazil (bronze medal).
In the women race Cruz Salazar (representative of the Miranda state) won the title of South American Mountain Running champion 2010, with time of 39.51 in front of the only Peruvian runner present, Elionaq Delgado Castro, second, with a time of 40.28, and Veronica Ramirez, third with a time of 40.43.
In women was the team of Argentina who won the first place overtaking Brazil which ranked second.
A large group of athletes in various categories staged the race of 8 km. and 12 km., up and down, in this discipline of athletics that harvest increasingly followers.

By Bruno Gozzelino (thanking press CONSUDATLE and Venezuelan Athletics Federation).

Photos by LOC.
In front page: Pedro Puente, men's winner.
Other photos:
Men individual podium
Women indivual podium
Part of the men race

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