Mountain Running Seminar

"On 24th and 25th April 2009 in the city of Sapareva Banya, Bulgarian Athletic Federation, together with the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) will conduct a Mountain Running Seminar for participants from Eastern Europe and the Balkan Region. The project will come true due to the financial support of the International Athletics Foundation (IAF)." Mountain Running races are steadily gaining popularity among athletes all around the world. They are recognized as a true test of endurance, ability, skills and wise preparation and are considered best practice for an athlete to excel in distance races. Mountain running is a worldwide sport and branch of traditional athletics, though it is still unknown to the most part of the coaches and Federations' officials in the Balkan region and Eastern European countries. It is often disregarded due to insufficient information and lack of traditions. Therefore a Seminar confined for participants from this region would certainly help change the opinion and replace ignorance with a well-founded knowledge and understanding.

The project aims to provide Federations officials and coaches with the knowledge and skills necessary to raise their competence in Mountain Running and recognise it as a modern and precious part of athletics which helps improve the athletes' performances in all endurance races. Participants will compare MR to other endurance races like cross country, will learn how to organise a MR race and design a course, promote and develop national races in accordance with the International mountain running calendar, choose equipment, prevention from injuries, what is the coach's role in motivating and inspiring an athlete, training for the mountains and what is the environmental impact. Lecturers of the seminar will be leading specialists in mountain running - Bruno Gozzelino (ITA) - WMRA General Secretary, Tomo Sarf (SLO) - WMRA Director of Development, Adrian Woods (GBR) - WMRA Director of Marketing, Dr. Sonja Ambrosy (GER) - WMRA Antidoping commission Member.

Another major aim of the project is to promote Sapareva Banya as the venue of the 9th European Mountain Running Championships 2010 and a natural Mountain Running centre suitable for training and preparation of athletes from all age groups.

There will be 80 participants from 17 European countries such as Russia, Armenia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Poland, Czech Republic, Greece, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Turkey and Bulgaria.