Smarna Gora

WMRA 5th Grand Prix race
Smarna Gora (Slovenia) 7th October.
As expected, the two dominant European mountain runners Jonathan Wyatt (NZL who is based in Europe for the summer season) and Marco Gaiardo (ITA) finished first and second respectively as they have done on each of their four grand Prix clashes this summer. However, because Jonathan was absent from the fifth Grand Prix which Marco won, the result of the overall result of the Grand Prix series now hangs on the result of the final race in Gibraltar which carries bonus points. If Jonathan did not run and Marco won he would take the Grand prix title by a margin of 10 points. All the minor placings are still undecided as Andrez Dlugosz forced himself into contention with a fine third position.
In the ladies race, as suspected, local girl who is still under 20, Mateja Kosovelj (SLO) left current GP champion Izabella Zatorska (POL) who was third and fellow Slovenian Lucija Krkoc, 2nd, in her wake as she broke the course record by 61 seconds and won comfortably by more than two minutes. With a similar performance in Gibraltar she could still lift herself from 5th position to runner up position behind Anna Pichrtova.
The full race results may be seen on the event web page via the link on www.wmra.info.
The final Grand Prix race, on October 28th takes place in Gibraltar with an 11km course that finishes at the summit of the spectacular ‘Rock of Gibraltar’.

Danny Hughes