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The jubilee of the 25th World Mountain Running Championships was organized in the Italian ski resort of Madesimo close to the town of Chiavenna.

It was a laped up and down course, one lap was 4,3km long with 275m difference in altitude, the Junior Women ran one lap, Junior Men and senior women ran 2 laps and Senior Men ran 3 laps. The start was 1750m above sea level, which made the races even more difficult for the athletes having to run at altitude. The course required many changes in rhythm, the surface changing from grassy to rocky terrain.

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“Weather conditions were excellent for the runners – after some days of rain in the area the weather cleared on the day before the race and the course dried nicely. After a cold and windy morning with temperatures just above freezing point the sun came out and warmed up the course. Approximately 330 runners from 35 countries participated in the event and many thousands of spectators lining the course enjoyed the spectacle on a beautiful clear day.

The races started with the Junior Women. The Turkish runners took a lead just after the start and only Morgan from USA and Mach from Poland succeeded in splitting the strong Turkish squad. The winner was Yasmin Can, who led from the start of the race. In the teams classification Turkey won the gold, but 4 teams each had between 20-21 points and shared the places from third to sixth position.

In the Junior Men’s race the spectators anticipated a local winner and they were not disappointed. Xavier Chevrier ran a smart race proved unbeatable especially on the technical descents. Although the teams from Turkey and Italy were in close competition for gold and silver they were well ahead of all other countries.

In the Senior Ladies race once again the Italian’s were the favorites for the team gold medal, but no one expected them to run a perfect race and for them to achieve individual gold, silver and bronze positions. Valentina Belotti was in the lead for the first lap but Elisa Desco overtook her on the second lap to win the race. Perhaps even more spectacular was the performance of bronze medal winner Maria Grazia Roberti who came right through the field in the second part of the race.

In the Senior Men’s race seven of the top ten places were taken by African runners.

The winner Geoffrey Kusuro from Uganda is no stranger to mountain running having won the junior title in 2007 in Ovronnaz. In the team competition the final order was the same as in Bursa 2006, when the Italian team was beaten for the first time. Once again they fell victim to Eritrea, but on this occasion on an up and down course.

Results:

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