Azarya Weldemariam and Antonella Confortola impress in Mayrhofen - WMRA Grand Prix
As the rain stricken Mayrhofen enjoyed a long awaited look of the bright sun, the mountainous terrain decided to take advantage of it and celebrated the sunny day with holding the WMRA Grand Prix contest. The event, which had already been scheduled to kick-off
on Sunday, July 31, observed a large field of runners hailing from 20 countries across the world.
In the men’s meet, the contest witnessed a major upset when Azarya Weldemariam from Eritrea overdid his pre-favourite Turkish counterpart, Ahmet Arslan. Weldemariam, who finished for a second place in the previous World Mountain Running Championships, took
a mere 50 minutes to overcome the desired distance and earned a huge 23 seconds victory over his closest rival, Arslan.
Arslan, the 25-year-old runner, who recently bagged five consecutive European Mountain Running Championships, could only finish for a second place.
Interestingly, just like road and track running, mountain running is also becoming a race which will be ruled by Kenyan runners. This fact was marked by the performance of Geoffey Gikuni Ndungu and Issac Kosgei, two Kenyan contenders who marked a 51:20 minutes
and 51:45 minutes effort, respectively. The fourth place in the event was claimed by New Zealand athlete, Jonathan Wyatt.
Among the locals, the athlete who could claimed some prominence was none other than Simon Lechleitner, who finished for a ninth place for stopping the clock in 54:31 minutes. From a local perspective, this was huge improvement as he outran Alexander Rieder,
the reigning Austrian champion for about a minute and left him struggling for a tenth place in the contest.
On the women’s side, the competition was not lesser entertaining than their male counterparts. Interestingly, the battle had provided a chance to the runners to settle some old scores and taking the chance, Antonella Confortola marked an impressive finish
of one hour, two minutes and 50 seconds. She prevailed over Lucija Krkoc, finishing in one hour, three minutes and 32 seconds, to take revenge of the European Championships showdown. The third position of the contest was claimed by Lisa Reisinger, the German
athlete who hit the finishing line in no later than one hour, three minutes and 58 seconds.
Following the trend set by male runners, the next major upset of the run was observed when Brandy Erholtz from America, the winner of the last contest, finished for a fourth place as she cleared the line in one hour, five minutes and two seconds. The last
prominent finisher of the race was the local runner, Susanne Mair, who finished her race in one hour, five minutes and 34 seconds. The next event under the WMRA Grand Prix umbrella will commence in Tirana, Albania, on September 11.
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