a Brief outline of the Council’s deliberations
The WMRA Council met in Monaco at the IAAF headquarters on 12th January.

Two applications to stage the 2009 World Long Distance Challenge were received. The Kaisermarathon (Austria) was awarded the Challenge and Pikes Peak Ascent invited to stage the 2010 Challenge.
A request from the Jungfrau Marathon to be granted the 2012 Challenge to coincide with their 20th anniversary was also approved.

There were no applications to stage the 2009 World Masters, so this event remains open for bids.

Regulations governing the WMRA International Youth Challenge were agreed and potential organisers are invited to apply to stage the 2009 event. Susa will host the 2008 event as in the past two years.

Council decide to go ahead with the Contractual agreement to stagethe 2009 World Trophy in Steamboat Springs (Colorado, USA) following assurances connected with certain aspects of their application inSeptember last year.

Council were pleased to receive news from IAAF that all “out ofcompetition”, anti-doping tests were clean, as were all in competitiontests for mountain running

Inov8, the mountain running shoe and clothing marketing companyhave renewed their sponsorship deal with WMRA for a further threeyears.

Our web page is being redesigned with the aid of 5,000€, granted by European Athletic Association. The new page should be completed by April.

There are still some questions to be resolved concerning the 2008 Grand Prix and an announcement should be available by the end of January.