World Mountain Running Trophy

The home crowd had plenty to cheer about at the World Mountain Running Trophy in Wellington, New Zealand, on Sunday 25 September, with home winners in both the senior men’s and women’s races.

The races, which ascended Mount Victoria in the centre of Wellington, were run over a 4.3km ‘up and down’ loop with a total climb of 310m per lap. After a first climb of 196m, the runners descended for 96m, then climbed back to the summit before a fast descent at the end of each lap. Jonathan Wyatt, a winner of the world title four times in uphill only races, became the first man to win the trophy on both uphill and up and down courses. His time of 53:23 in the 13.5km race gave him a winning margin of more than two minutes over Silver medallist Gabriele Abate of Italy (55:35). Italians also occupied third and fourth places through Davide Chicco (55:41) and Marco Gaiardo (56:08), ensuring that they retained the team title they have won every year except one since the first World Mountain Running Trophy in 1985. Germany’s Helmut Schiessl, who was second in this year’s European Mountain Running Championships, was fifth in 56:22. New Zealand were second in the team competition and France third. Kate McIlroy completed the women’s 9.1km race in 39:40 to take the title by two minutes from Scotland’s Tracey Brindley (41:42), with Anna Pichrtova from the Czech Republic a further 17 seconds back. McIlroy led from early in the race, while Brindley moved through on the second lap to pass Pichrtova and take the Silver medal. Brindley improved on her Bronze medal from 2003, while Pichrtova, the European champion in 2004, had previously taken the Silver medal twice in 2001 and 2004. Italians Vittoria Salvini, Maria Garzia Roberti and Pierangela Baronchelli all finished inside the top ten to ensure that they defended their senior women’s team title. Scotland finished second and the Czech Republic third. The junior men’s 9.1km race was won Vedat Gunen of Turkey in 36:48 ahead of pre race favourite Juan Carlos Carera from Mexico (37:20) and Italy’s Martin Dematteis (37:28). Both Turkey and Italy has three finishers in the top, but it was Turkey who won the team title with 12 points to Italy’s 16. The Czech Republic was third with 41. The junior women’s title went to defending champion Jioulia Mochalova from Russia. She completed the 4.7km race in 21:50 to win by 10 seconds from Slovenia’s Mateja Kosovelj, the Bronze medalist for the last two years, with Turkey’s Hulya Ongun third in 22:46. Kosovelj’s Silver plus fourth and fifth places for Lucija Krkoc and Suza Mladenovic ensured that Slovenia took the team title. Russia was second and Turkey third. Mochalova's win was an remarkable performance given that the Russian team had only arrived in Wellington at 11:30pm the night before the race and she had only three hours sleep and no opportunity to visit the course. Full results are available at http://www.mountainrunning.org.nz