“424 runners finished their race at the 15. WMRA /WMA Master Mountain Running Championships at Betws-Y-Coed.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland Team thriumped winning a total of 48 medals (28 gold, 10 silver and 10 bronze).
Other five nations won one gold medal: Italy, Germany, Ireland, USA and New Zealand (in the order in the medal table). Finally Norway kept 2 silver medals and 1 bronze.
The track was perfect for this kind of competition very well prepared by LOC staff and Officials of the Welsh Athletics Association.
Also logistic and other important organisational aspects were very well organised by LOC staff under the guide of Alun Pritchard (Conwy Office)&nbsp, and with the contrrol by Tomo Sarf, WMRA Delegate for the event.
About weather, most part of the races were&nbsp, run under the sun but some moments of rain there was during the morning.
“
“Only one champion of last year were able to confirm the title this years.
She is Ann-Marie Jones who won the title also in 2013 and in 2014 (she is British and Swedish citizen and she won title 2015 and 2015 under GBR flag, instead last year she run for SWE flag!)
In the summary, winners in the men categories were: M35 Zac Freudenburg USA, M40 Morgan Donnelly GBR, M45 Karl Gray GBR, M50 Craig Roberts GBR, M55 Franz Prager GER, M60 Marino Portigliotti ITA, M65 Bernard Grant GBR, M70 Geoffrey Howard GBR and M75 Norman Bush GBR.
Instead in the women categories the winners were: W35 Anna Lupton GBR, W40 Helen Berry GBR, W45 Lucy Elliott GBR, W50 Sally Gibbs NZL, W55 Ali Keates GBR, W60 Ann-Marie Jones GBR, W65 Lou Lyness GBR and W70 Brenda Jones GBR.
None started in W75 and no teams finished in W75 and W70.
Best time were: on the track of km. 8.7 for the men Prager with 40 minutes and 35 seconds and in the women categories Keates with time of 47 minutes and 16 seconds, instead on the track of km. 10.6 the fastest men was Freudenburg with time of 42 minutes and 4 seconds, and the fastest women was Lupton with time of 49 minutes and 22 seconds.
In total were distributed 33 gold medals, 27 silver medals and 23 bronze medals.
Great Britain and Northern Ireland dominated &ndash, as already told – with 48 medals (of which 28 gold, 10 silver and 20 bronze).
Second in the nation medal table was Italy with&nbsp, a total of 11 medals: 1 gold, 7 silver and 3 bronze.
Third in the nation medal table was Germany that took a total of 9 medals: 1 gold, 5 silver and 3 bronze.
Ireland followed in fourth position with a total of 7 medals: 1 gold, 2 silver and 4 bronze. –
USA won 2 medals: 1 gold and 1 silver.
New Zealand won 3 medals: 1 gold and 2 bronze and Norway also won 3 medals: no gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze.
22 countries had runners partecipating at the Championships.
The American&rsquo,s Zac Freudenburg won the opening race of the day, the men&rsquo,s V35 category. Mercia Fell&rsquo,s Simon Bailey built up an early lead but Freudenburg took control around the halfway mark and managed to extend his advantage before the&nbsp, finish line.
Borrowdale&rsquo,s Morgan Donnelly kicked off the British dominance with an excellent win in the men&rsquo,s V40 category. Italy&rsquo,s Giuseppe Antonini was in contention early on before England&rsquo,s Chris Greenwood moved into second place and that&rsquo,s how the top three finished with Donnelly taking the victory. &ldquo,Us Brits were very happy that it rained overnight which really helped us out,&rdquo, said Donnelly. &ldquo,I enjoyed the course, I managed to get clear on the second climb and hold on to the lead.&rdquo,
WMMRC debutant Karl Gray enjoyed an excellent battle with Salford&rsquo,s Martin Cox in the V45 category, with less than 10 seconds separating the pair at the halfway stage. But it was Gray who produced the stronger second half of the race to take the victory. He said: &ldquo,Martin (Cox) had me on the ropes for a bit but I hung on in there and managed to push on and get a small lead. &ldquo,This is something I have been building towards this year, I wanted to see where my fitness was before I entered but I am very happy I did and it&rsquo,s an incentive to race again next year.&rdquo,
In the combined women&rsquo,s V35 and V40 race Barrow and Furness&rsquo, Anna Lupton was 17 seconds ahead of Helen Berry (V40) at the 5.6km marker and showed no mercy over the second half of the race, coming home in 49:22, almost a minute ahead of Berry. &ldquo,It was a fast and furious start to the race but I felt good and managed to push hard throughout the race,&rdquo, said Lupton. Berry said: &ldquo,It feels very, very good to be world champion. I went into the race hoping to get a medal but to come away with gold is brilliant.&rdquo,
Katie Beecher won Wales&rsquo, first medal of the day with a silver in the V35 race, with Shona Robertson taking fourth overall and second in the V40 category.
Kendal&rsquo,s Craig Roberts secured his fourth world masters title with victory in the M50 category, having won in 2009, the M45 category in 2011 and 2013 before beaten into second place in 2014. He made no mistake this year with a superb display to take the title in 44:17, ahead of Ben Reynolds in second and Alan Bowness, who had led at 5.6km, in third. Roberts said: &ldquo,I knew Alan (Bowness) had a lot of track speed and would try to burn us off early but I was pretty comfortable and kept him in reach.&ldquo,I thought I had blown it on the second climb when he (Ben) began to catch me up but when I was in the lead on the downhill I knew no-one was going to catch me.&rdquo,
Former inter-counties cross country champion and seasoned GB international Lucy Elliot won the women&rsquo,s V45 gold, 31 seconds ahead of Germany&rsquo,s Elke Keller. &ldquo,It&rsquo,s a bit of shock to finish first but a fantastic experience,&rdquo, said Elliott. &ldquo,The last decent really took it out of my legs but I managed to hold on.&rdquo,
Sally Gibbs from New Zealand won the women&rsquo,s V50 just a week before she is due to take part in the World Mountain Running Championships. She said: &ldquo,The conditions were tough but I&rsquo,m stoked with the win. I&rsquo,m really looking forward to next week and hopefully with a bit more training I&rsquo,ll be able to do well.&rdquo,
Germany&rsquo,s Franz Prager won the first of the contests over the shorter 8.7km course, taking gold in the V55 age group.
Italy&rsquo,s Marino Portigliotti then claimed an impressive victory in the V60 age group.
English athletes took a clean sweep of titles in the combined men&rsquo,s V65, V70 and V75 races, with gold medals for Bernard Grant, Geoffrey Howard and Norman Bush. In the final championship race of the day, there were gold medals for Ali Keates (V55), Ann-Marie Jones (V60), Lou Lyness (V65) and Brenda Jones (V70).
It is interesting underline that Nancy Hobbs, WMRA Treasurer, won silver medals in W55 category.
The prize ceremony closed the event with the presence of various Autorities: first of all Graham Rees, Cabinet Member for Tourism, Marketing and Leisure Conwy County Borough Council, and Steve Brace for Welsh Athletics Association.
At the end of the prize ceremony LOC Betws-Y-Coed pass the WMRA flag to Bruno Gozzelino, WMRA President, and then to Adriano Aschieris, Chairman of LOC Master Ch. 2016.
Next 16. edition of WMRA/WMA Master World Mountain Running Championships 2016 will be held at Susa (ITA) on 27th and 28th August 2016.

Pictures of the event are available at following link: http://woodentops.org.uk/index.php?topic=home&amp,subtopic=morephotos&amp,photoyear=2015 and http://www.sportpicturescymru.co.uk/pages/gallery/2015-gallery/running-photographs/fell-running.php.

Edited from Bruno Gozzelino (WMRA President)and from Tim Lewis (Press and PR Officer Welsh Athletics)

Source of the pictures.
On first page:
– start of W55 and other following categories (photo by Patrizia Longo),
on second page:
– start of M35 (photo by Patrizia Longo),
– W55 5. Furhmann (1011) and 7. Bergler (1015) (photo by SportpicturesCymru)
– M35 battle for the victory: 1. Freudenburg (118) and 2. Bailey (107) (photo by SportpicturesCymru)
– M55 winner Prager (743) (photo by SportpicturesCymru).

“