Tunstall and Mamu are the winners at Montee du Grand Ballon, second stage of World Cup 2015
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Eritrean Petro Mamu and British Sarah Tunstall are the winners of the traditional race Grand Ballon, second stage of the 2015 WMRA World Cup.
Eritrean runner Petro Mamu was one of the favourites on the start line in Willer-sur-Thur. Finally he did not disappoint at the second WMRA event in 2015. When he crossed the finish line on the top of Vosges&rsquo,s, the stop watch was showing just 15 seconds more than in 2014 when he improved the course record for almost 2 minutes.
After 4km 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, also second in 2014, was the only one who tried to follow him. At the end, he difference between the winner and the second was almost 2 minutes, and between the second and third was another 2 minutes.
Anyway, the men&rsquo,s field was very strong and colourful &ndash, seven countries were represented in top 10 and with one French in-between.
" "In the women&rsquo,s race Emma Clayton from Great Britain was the favourite on the paper, but another British runner, Sarah Tunstall had made a clear surprise: she won the race with decent advantage of more than one minute.
Merenyi Timea from Hungary, ,who finished 2nd in 2014, was third.
Runners from six countries finished on top 6 positions and the first French runner finished only on 6th position.
The women&rsquo,s course was 8,4km long with 820m elevation gain.
After the race, Sarah said, that she is also surprised that she beat her team mate Emma, who qualified for the British team for European Champs. She felt strong especially in the second part of the course, otherwise she is focused on longer races this year.
The men&rsquo,s race winner Petro Mamu, who faces with this course for the second 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.
The organizers from Athletic Club Thann chaired by the Jean-Alain Haan organized the 35 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. They were not satisfied with the smaller number of entered local runners.
Running conditions were pretty good for running: dry course and excellent temperatures for the runners were disturbed only high humidity in the middle 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. Finally he did not disappoint at the second WMRA event in 2015. When he crossed the finish line on the top of Vosges&rsquo,s, the stop watch was showing just 15 seconds more than in 2014 when he improved the course record for almost 2 minutes.
After 4km 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, also second in 2014, was the only one who tried to follow him. At the end, he difference between the winner and the second was almost 2 minutes, and between the second and third was another 2 minutes.
Anyway, the men&rsquo,s field was very strong and colourful &ndash, seven countries were represented in top 10 and with one French in-between.
" "In the women&rsquo,s race Emma Clayton from Great Britain was the favourite on the paper, but another British runner, Sarah Tunstall had made a clear surprise: she won the race with decent advantage of more than one minute.
Merenyi Timea from Hungary, ,who finished 2nd in 2014, was third.
Runners from six countries finished on top 6 positions and the first French runner finished only on 6th position.
The women&rsquo,s course was 8,4km long with 820m elevation gain.
The men&rsquo,s race winner Petro Mamu, who faces with this course for the second 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.
The organizers from Athletic Club Thann chaired by the Jean-Alain Haan organized the 35 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. They were not satisfied with the smaller number of entered local runners.
Running conditions were pretty good for running: dry course and excellent temperatures for the runners were disturbed only high humidity in the middle part.
The next third stage of the World Cup will be the Grintovec race in Slovenia at the end of July.
Edited from Tomo Sarf (WMRA)
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Source of the pictures Tomo Sarf
on front page:
- winner men ,Petro Mamu ,,
on second page.:
- winner women Sarah Tunstall.
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