Countdown to 12. World Masters Mountain Running Championships 2012 in B

From 32 nations from all around the World, master athletes will arrive in Bü,hlertal/Germany this Weekend, for the 12. World Masters Mountain Running Championships 2012.
1100 master athletes have registered for this great event. This means a new record in the entries and a further increase compared with last year's edition, in both, the number of entries and in the number of participating countries (Paluzza 2011: 1015 entries from 26 nations).
The LOC hopes to welcome more runners at the start than have ever participated in a World Masters Mountain Running Championship before.
228 of the registered starters are female and 872 male, one third of the participants come from outside of Germany, the largest starting field is registered in the M45 class, followed by M50 and M55. The starting gun will send off 227 runners together in the largest starting field, the start of the M45 / W45 class.

The races will start with an ",open race",, that is not part of the World Championships for those who are younger than 35 years, at 10:40 am.
12. World Masters Mountain Running Championship 2012 is starting in Bü,hlertal, the town in the south western part of Germany, in the Black Forrest region, on next Saturday 19 May.
The starts will take place in the heart of the upper part of the town. Starting directly in front of local event hall in Bü,hlertal, there are already some not to easy hills to overcome while still on pavement, before the actual climb of the mountain begins. Turning into a steep gravel path, here begins the part which is most characteristic for the racetrack. After a short cross of a skiing-slope, the track finds its culmination in a rocky single track trail for the remainder of the course which totals 9.5 km with 776 meters of elevation gain.
The unexpected rush on the World Championship in the last days before the registration has closed provides extra work for the volunteers: 1100 bags with goods for the participants had to be packed! Each bag contains a bath towel, a bottle of wine, a small bottle of kirsch, and a lot of other things. This means a lot of work for the helpers and working till the evening hours.
Bü,hlertal will be prepared to host all the athletes from all over the world. 240 volunteers will ensure that everything runs
smoothly.
Bruno Gozzelino (Italy), WMRA President, Wolfgang Munzel (Germany), WMRA Council member and also WMRA Delegate for the event, Tomo Sarf (Slovenia), WMRA Council member, and Nancy Hobbs (USA), WMRA Treasurer, will attend to the event and Nancy Hobbs will run also the Championships!
There will be also a delegation from Janské, Lá,zné, (Czech Republic) - , where the 13. World Master Mountain Running 2013 will be held on 31. August 2013 - be present at the event. They will be promoting their next year's race and of course, will receive the WMRA flag during the official closing ceremony on Saturday evening.

News by LOC

Photos:
 ,- LOC of Bü,hlertal 2012, (photo by Katrin Kö,nig)
 ,- Busy hands fill the gift bags for the participants, (photo by LOC)