WMRA Grand Prix

"New Zealand celebrate double victory in overall WMRA Grand Prix standings despite defeats in last race

Ljubljana, Slovenia - The final race of the seven event 2008 WMRA Mountain Running Grand Prix series was held on 4 October in Slovenia. The race chosen to host the Grand Prix final was the 29th edition of the Smarna Gora, Ljubljana.Jonathan Wyatt (NZL), as predicted, did enough to place himself first in the final GP ranking. He finished fourth today, and with 394 points was well ahead of series runner-up Marco Gaiardo (ITA) with 350 points.Winner of today&rsquo,s race, Mitja Kosovelj (SLO) moved up to third in the ranking with 297 points.

In the women&rsquo,s division, a new race record was set today by World champion Andrea Mayr (AUT) who won comfortably from last year&rsquo,s winner, Victoria Wilkinson (GBR). Overall in the season these two finished 5th and 3rd respectively leaving the overall GP title to Anna Frost (NZL). Frost, suffering from a slight throat infection could only manage 8th in the race.Mitja Kosovelj&rsquo,s sister, Mateja, made it a family celebration finishing 3rd in the race and second in the Grand Prix ranking.

So New Zealand can boast both GP winners. Wyatt and Frost are based in Europe for much of the year." "

RESULTS

Men
1 , Mitja Kosovelj SLO 40:22
2 , Robert Krupicka CZE , 40:57
3 , Marco Gaiardo ITA 41:16
4 , Jonathan Wyatt NZL 41:42
5 , Emanuelle Manzi ITA 42:14
6 , Andrzg Dlugosz POL 42:18

Women
1 , Andrea Mayr AUT 45:24 (record)
2 , Victoria Wilkinson GBR , 48:02
3 , Mateja Kosovelj SLO 48:41
4 , Pavla Matjasova 49:26
5 , Anna Pichrtova CZE 50:11

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2008 Grand Prix winners - Updated 5 Oct

Men
1 WYATT Jonathan , NZL ,394
2 GAIARDO Marco ,ITA ,350
3 ,KOSOVELJ Mitja ,SLO ,297
4 DLUGOSZ Andrzej POL ,277
5 KROELL Markus ,AUT ,243
6 KRUPICKA Robert CZE ,217

Women
1 FROST Anna ,NZL ,315
2 KOSOVELJ Mateja SLO ,292
3 WILKINSON Victoria ,GBR ,284
4 MATYASOVA Pavla CZE ,279
5 MAYR Andrea ,AUT ,270
6 MILESOVA Iva ,CZE ,250

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