Antonio Toninelli wins the 2009 Šmarna gora race - WMRA (© Ales Fevžer)
Ljubljana, SloveniaNot only was the Šmarna gora race, one of the world’s mountain running races with the longest tradition, celebrating its 30th anniversary on Saturday (3) but it again held the honour as the WMRA Grand Prix Final and was therefore a unique event.
On a sunny Saturday, more than 250 runners competed on the steep slopes of Šmarna gora.
In the men’s race the nine kilometres of technical and slippery track were not a problem for the race winner Italy's Antonio Toninelli (ITA) who defeated Czech Robert Krupicka into second place, with Italian colleague Marco De Gasperi finishing in third.
With his sixth place finish Jonathan Wyatt (NZL) came first in the overall final 2009 WMRA GP ranking on 352 points, with his nearest opponent Robert Krupicka on 324 points.
In the women's division, Andrea Mayr (AUT) after her brilliant performance last year when she set the course record, won again. However, in the overall standings for the 2009 season she had completed only three GP races and although she won all of them that was enough only to place her in second position with 320 points. Better than her was Iva Milesova (CZE) with 327 points from 5 races.
Slovenian runners brother and sister Mitja and Mateja Kosovelj both finished the final race in 4th position and find themselves in 3rd place in the final Grand Prix ranking.
As a part of celebration of the 30th anniversary the organisers invited all women and men's winners since 1979 when the race was held for the first time. Many of them responded to the kind invitation and it was really interesting to see the very first winners standing together with all the winners since 1994, the year when the race became an international Mountain Running event.
Pika Sarf for IAAF
30th Smarna gora race:
WOMEN
1 MAYR Andrea 79 AUT 45:41
2 FROST Anna 81 NZL 47:19
3 KRKOC Lucija 88 SLO 47:35
4 KOSOVELJ Mateja 88 SLO 48:48
5 ROBERTI Maria Grazia 67 ITA 49:46
6 MILESOVA Iva 77 CZE 50:00
7 OBIDIC Kaja 91 SLO 50:26
MEN
1 TONINELLI Antonio 84 ITA 40:03
2 KRUPICKA Robert 81 CZE 40:09
3 DE GASPERI Marco 77 ITA 40:16
4 KOSOVELJ Mitja 84 SLO 40:24
5 MANZI Emanuele 77 ITA 40:38
6 WYATT Jonathan 72 NZL 40:58
7 DLUGOSZ Andrzej 78 POL 41:12
OVERALL WMRA GP – 2009
WOMEN
1 MILESOVA Iva 77 CZE 327
2 MAYR Andrea 79 AUT 320
3 KOSOVELJ Mateja 88 SLO 298
4 PICHRTOVA Anna 73 CZE 257
5 KRKOC Lucija 88 SLO 243
6 ROBERTI Maria Grazia 66 ITA 168
7 CONFORTOLA Antonella 75 ITA 165
MEN
1 WYATT Jonathan 72 NZL 352
2 KRUPICKA Robert 78 CZE 324
3 KOSOVELJ Mitja 84 SLO 227
4 GATES Rickey 81 USA 190
5 KROELL Markus 78 AUT 159
6 DE GASPERI Marco 77 ITA 150
7 SCHMUCK Helmut 63 AUT 125
