“The International Smarna Gora Mountain Running Race remains one of the highlights of the mountain running season, and its rich tradition will continue on Saturday October 4, with its 35th edition.
Also this year the race is the exiting final of the 16th WMRA World Cup!
In the fall season of 1979 running enthusiasts from Ljubljana, Slovenia&rsquo,s capital, decided to organize a race to the top of one of the most popular mountains in Slovenia at Smarna Gora.
Nobody envisaged that it would become such a massive event with worldwide popularity.
The mountain running champions of the world will again be crowned this Saturday at this magnificent mountain peak.”
“In the early 1990s the event was the first national championships in the new state of Slovenia and later that decade, world champion Lucio Fregona (ITA) made the Smarna Gora race an internationally recognized event. After the miclass=&quot,img_border_right&quot,llennium, the Smarna Gora race became one of the founding members of the WMRA Grand Prix and since then it has been the final Grand Prix event on twelve occasions.
In the last 34 years many world championships medallists have been tested on the demanding course that takes runners 360 meters uphill to the first summit, followed by 300 meters of technical descent before a 300 meter climb to the finish.
The top men will race just over 40 minutes for this 10-kilometre course.
Next Saturday 4th October, the best mountain runners will again meet to test their strength, speed and skills.
This will be the first official WMRA meeting after the World Championships and many will strive to climb the famous podium at Smarna Gora.
This will be a tall order, as the top female runners will include current World and European Championships winner Andrea Mayr (AUT), the 2013 world champion and Smarna gora winner Alice Gaggi (ITA) and Mateja Kosovelj (SLO), 2014 European silver medallist, 6th at World Championships, defending Grand prix winner plus course record holder. Sarah Tunstall (ENG) and Antonella Confortola (ITA), both national team members, will also try to earn a spot on the podium.
In the men&rsquo,s event, Eritrean Mamu Petro will test his skills on the Smarna gora course for the first time, World Champion 2012 and World Cup current leader will do his best to keep his top position.&nbsp,
Alex Baldaccini (ITA), returns to defend his Smarna Gora title from 2012. Jonathan Wyatt, six times world champion and Smarna gora old course record holder feels this summer like reborn.&nbsp,
Mitja Kosovelj of Slovenia is well positioned to offer a strong challenge since he knows the course very well.
David Schneider (SUI) is also making a return.&nbsp,

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