5th WMRA International Youth Challenge
Sauze d'Oulx, winter ski resort of the high Susa Valley, will be on June 26th the hosting town of the 5th WMRA Youth Challenge. (16-17 years old).
Still a month before the only event fully dedicated to young runners, and nine National Teams have already confirmed their participation in Sauze d'Oulx, Freestyle Olympic site during 2006 Olympic Winter Games.
" "Together with Italy, also Germany, Gibraltar, Ireland, Poland, Russia, Scotland, Slovenia, Turkey and Wales will run in the 11th Marco Germanetto Memorial, but some other Countries could probably join them in the next weeks.
Best mountain runners promises of every Country will run on the Saturday afternoon, on a 1400m lap, developed between the old town and ski slopes, where New Zealand Jonathan Wyatt and Italian Rosita Rota Gelpi were the King and Queen of the 2004 WMRT edition.
Girls will face with a 3,5km circuit (+/- 190 m), while boys will run on a 5,0km circuit (+/- 270 m).
After 2009 edition hosted by Osthein (Germany), WMRA Youth Challenge comes back to the Susa Valley, where the first three editions of the Memorial of Atletica Susa young Champion Marco Germanetto, took place. This event launched, in the past years, runners like Mateja Kosovelj, Lucija Krkoc, Xavier Chevrier and Laura Park, just to mention some of them.
This is a friendly greeting of Franco Arese, president of Italian Athletics Federation, to all participants of the 5th WMRA Youth Challenge: ",Mountain running has grown fast in the last decade. One of the driving forces behind this discipline is located in the Alta Val di Susa.
Here the local authorities have realized since long the great potentialities of this event that draw the attention of people and media. Thanks to the commitment of the Atletica Susa club the mountain running has turned from a niche event to a point of reference for any initiative aimed to promote the tourism, the culture and the economy of this wonderful corner of our peninsula.
The success of the World Mountain Running Trophy 2004 held in Sauze d'Oulx, on the wave of the Winter Olympics, has represented a leap in quality. However the way has been paved through the years by events such as the Memorial Germanetto, which was born from the ",memory", and the ",friendship",, with the aim of spreading love for athletics.
This event gave origin, together with the WMRA Youth Challenge, to the first international mountain running circuit entirely dedicated to the youngsters.
The number of participating countries keeps increasing as well as the side initiatives, the relations and the cultural exchanges have also intensified.
This way, on behalf and in memory of Marco, the mountain running opens new horizons and flies towards the future.",
For further information: www.atleticasusa.it
Paolo Germanetto for WMRA
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