Anna Pichrtova from the Czech Republic on the Grintovec - WMRA (© WMRA)
Over 200 mountain running fans from 10 countries gathered in the Kamniska bistrica valley to climb the Grintovec (2558m) - one of the highest mountains in Slovenia at the 12th Grintovec Mountain Running Race on Saturday 25 July.
The course is probably the hardest in Europe – 9,6km long with almost 2000m elevation. The weather was excellent for the competition – about 20C at the start and 10C at the finish with almost no wind and low humidity. More than 1000 spectators followed the race all along the course and made the atmosphere suitable for a WMRA Grand Prix race. Almost 100 young runners ran shorter courses.
In the men’s race Czech Robert Krupicka ran one of his best races ever and he beat the course record holder Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand with the second best result ever on the course. 2008 winner Rickey Gates was third and Sebastian Zarnik was the best local runner.
The race has a 12 year long tradition. Since 2004 the event is international and Krupicka is the only winner who won the race two times (05 and 09). In the first seven places there were runners from six different countries.
In the women’s competition Anna Pichrtova from Czech Republic won the race for the fifth time in succession.
Tomo Šarf (WMRA) for the IAAF