Francesca Ghelfi wins the WMRA Nations Cup in Chiavenna (© Marco Gulberti)
Italy's Francesca Ghelfi and Filimon Abraham of Germany claimed the top spots at the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) Nations Cup in Chiavenna, Italy, on Sunday (31).
The event was held as an opportunity for international competition at the end of the 2021 season, following the postponement of the World Mountain Running Championships in Thailand to February 2022.
In his opening ceremony comments, WMRA president Jonathan Wyatt thanked the organisers of the Val Bregaglia Trail for staging this special edition of the race and for pulling the whole thing together in just over six weeks. Just as importantly, he also thanked the athletes for their commitment to training and qualifying for the competition, and for travelling to Chiavenna.
A total of 100 athletes from 15 countries stood on the start line, eager to compete at the highest level on this fast 19km course with 660m of ascent.
In the women’s race it was Scotland’s Scout Adkin and England’s Kate Maltby who struck out at the front. Scout was narrowly ahead at the 4.5km point and they were being chased by Ghelfi, who was around 40 seconds behind. Similarly, in the men’s race two athletes tried to stamp their authority from the start, and it was Lengen Lolkurraru of Kenya and Abraham. At this point they were neck and neck, with Czech athlete Jachym Kovar 40 seconds back.
At the 10km point little had changed at the front. Adkin and Maltby were together and Italian Alice Gaggi had caught Ghelfi, 30 seconds behind the leading pair. The chase was definitely on. Lolkurraru and Abraham remained at the front of the men’s race, with Kovar still leading the chase, but by this point Timotej Becan of Slovenia and Chris Richards of England were also pushing hard for the podium.
It was at the next time check at 15.8km where things had started to change. Ghelfi had taken the lead in the women’s race and had started to stretch out a gap of 45 seconds over Adkin. Maltby was still in touch with Adkin, just 10 seconds behind her, and Gaggi also remained in contention for the podium, just 12 seconds behind Maltby. In the men’s race, Lolkurraru was leading by a very narrow margin of five seconds from Abraham, and it was Becan who lay in third, a minute and a half back.
At the finish line in the town square in Chiavenna it was Abraham who was first to arrive, having stretched out a lead of just over a minute from Lolkurraru over the final 5km. He won in 1:18:29, while Lolkurraru took silver in 1:19:48 and Becan bronze in 1:22:10.
Winner Filimon Abraham and runner-up Lengen Lolkurraru (© Marco Gulberti)
Becan beat Italy's fourth-placed Daniel Pattis by just one second in a sprint finish, as Richards finished 35 seconds back for fifth place.
In the women’s race, Ghelfi hung on to take the gold for Italy in 1:34:01. Adkin claimed silver in 1:35:14 with a great breakthrough performance, and it was Hanna Grober of Germany who came through for the bronze in 1:35:51.
Gaggi was just five seconds behind in fourth and Maltby claimed fifth in 1:36:59.
In the team competition it was a win for England’s women, with Italy second and the Czech Republic third. Italy’s men took the gold, with England second and Romania third.
"It is with great pleasure that the WMRA are able to put together an event in the space of only six weeks where athletes could compete for their country and our WMRA and World Athletics members can join after two years without a World Championships for our senior athletes," said Wyatt.
"The races have been hard and the competition exciting and it is a pleasure to hear the national anthems of the winning teams and individuals once again for a senior mountain running competition.
"The WMRA would like to thank the services of the town of Chiavenna and their superb organisation team as well as the support we have received from the Italian Athletics Federation (FIDAL)."
Kirsty Reade (WMRA) for World Athletics
