First WMRA Virtual Congress

In the first ever virtual WMRA Congress there was a very pleasing turnout of 25 delegates and participation from honorary president and council members Bruno Gozzelino and Pierre Weiss. Also present was World Athletics Road Competitions Manager Alessio Punzi, who informed the Congress about developments of the first edition of the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships due to take place in November 2021, with an announcement on the venue to be made in the next 2-3 weeks.

News about the current year and future competitions was well received by the delegates including the launch of the 2021 World Cup venues with a record number of applications and the World Mountain Running Ranking due to be launched before the end of the year.

Also unveiled was the 4 year strategic plan for mountain running taking into account a new vision by the WMRA to have more people from all backgrounds positively benefiting from running in the mountains in an environmentally responsible way.

We established 3 key strategic directions. The first is enhancing the athlete experience through competition events, the Mountain Running World ranking, social media and high quality news items as well as delivering the World Championships in partnership with World Athletics. The second is to make education and promotion to further develop the sport and increase knowledge about Mountain Running a priority. And the third is to use our technical expertise to add value to race events.

It was a very productive session and the WMRA members were able to both interact and learn about these and other future plans for Mountain Running. A pleasing result in a year of difficult times!

Jonathan Wyatt

here is a list of the participants today...