2. W.C. race: Mamu and Belotti winners.New course record set despite a windy day at Grand Ballon.
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Eritrean Petro Mamu and Italian Valentina Belotti are the winners of the second stage of 16. WMRA World Cup race in France.
Eritrean runner Petro Mamu was one of the favourites on the start line in Willer-sur-Thur .
His results in the second part of the season 2013 were promising and he did not disappoint at the first WMRA event in 2014 he took part.
When he crossed the finish line on the top of Vosges&rsquo,s, the stop watch was showing incredible time 57:36, which meant that he improved Arslan&rsquo,s record from 2012 for almost 2 minutes!
After 3km of the 13,4km long course with 1230m elevation gain that includes also 210 m of descent, he felt stronger than his closest opponents Teklay, Tsege, Rancon and Kenyan Wandangi. His advantage was growing from kilometre to kilometre and was finally almost 3 minutes.
Runners from 8 countries were in the top 15.
" "In the women&rsquo,s race Valentina Belotti was also the favourite on the paper.
She won this race in 2013 and 2012, when she set the course record, and she was second just a week ago at the first stage of the Mountain running World Cup in Bludenz. Her time was almost 2 minutes slower than her record, but still enough for a clear victory. Merenyi Timea from Hungary that finished 5th in Bludenz finished second and Melanie Noll just behind her (she finished 7th in Bludenz).
The competition in the women&rsquo,s race was not as strong as in the men&rsquo,s race.
The women&rsquo,s course was 8,4km long with 820m elevation gain.
After the race, Valentina said, that she is not in the top shape in this time, because she is preparing for the European Championships. She likes the challenging course and the friendly organizers. The only part of the course she does not like are 2 rocky sections just in the last 2 kilometres.
New course record holder Petro Mamu, who faces with this course for the first time, liked the course, he thinks the course is not very difficult, because the declination does not change a lot, there are no really steep parts. The course is really runnable, which suits him. His biggest enemy during the today&rsquo,s race was the wind, that was blowing extremely strong especially in the upper part, when the course comes out of the forest. For that reason it was also pretty cold from time to time.
The organizers from Athletic Club Thann chaired by the Jean-Alain Haan organized the 34 edition of this race with lots of enthusiasm. Experiences gained in all those years made their job easier, but every year they find ideas and energy to improve particular details. After successful National championships in 2013 this time they were not satisfied with the smaller number of entered runners.
Running conditions were pretty good for running &ndash, dry course and excellent temperatures for the runners were disturbed only by the strong wind in the upper part.
The next third stage of the World Cup will be the Grintovec race in Slovenia at the end of July.
Eritrean runner Petro Mamu was one of the favourites on the start line in Willer-sur-Thur .
His results in the second part of the season 2013 were promising and he did not disappoint at the first WMRA event in 2014 he took part.
When he crossed the finish line on the top of Vosges&rsquo,s, the stop watch was showing incredible time 57:36, which meant that he improved Arslan&rsquo,s record from 2012 for almost 2 minutes!
After 3km of the 13,4km long course with 1230m elevation gain that includes also 210 m of descent, he felt stronger than his closest opponents Teklay, Tsege, Rancon and Kenyan Wandangi. His advantage was growing from kilometre to kilometre and was finally almost 3 minutes.
Runners from 8 countries were in the top 15.
" "In the women&rsquo,s race Valentina Belotti was also the favourite on the paper.
She won this race in 2013 and 2012, when she set the course record, and she was second just a week ago at the first stage of the Mountain running World Cup in Bludenz. Her time was almost 2 minutes slower than her record, but still enough for a clear victory. Merenyi Timea from Hungary that finished 5th in Bludenz finished second and Melanie Noll just behind her (she finished 7th in Bludenz).
The women&rsquo,s course was 8,4km long with 820m elevation gain.
After the race, Valentina said, that she is not in the top shape in this time, because she is preparing for the European Championships. She likes the challenging course and the friendly organizers. The only part of the course she does not like are 2 rocky sections just in the last 2 kilometres.
New course record holder Petro Mamu, who faces with this course for the first time, liked the course, he thinks the course is not very difficult, because the declination does not change a lot, there are no really steep parts. The course is really runnable, which suits him. His biggest enemy during the today&rsquo,s race was the wind, that was blowing extremely strong especially in the upper part, when the course comes out of the forest. For that reason it was also pretty cold from time to time.
The organizers from Athletic Club Thann chaired by the Jean-Alain Haan organized the 34 edition of this race with lots of enthusiasm. Experiences gained in all those years made their job easier, but every year they find ideas and energy to improve particular details. After successful National championships in 2013 this time they were not satisfied with the smaller number of entered runners.
Running conditions were pretty good for running &ndash, dry course and excellent temperatures for the runners were disturbed only by the strong wind in the upper part.
The next third stage of the World Cup will be the Grintovec race in Slovenia at the end of July.
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Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA)
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Source of the pictures:
on front page (from Tomo Sarf):
,- Mamu, men winner in action,
,on second page (from Tomo Sarf):
,- top three women on the podium.