Stunning World Mountain Running Champs in Italy

Italian women sweep, Eritreans win title then defect, Americans run well

Sept. 6, Campodolcino, Italy -- Nestled high in the Italian Alps on the border with Switzerland, the towns of Campodolcino and Madesimo made a fitting and spectacular setting for the 1st IAAF World Mountain Running Championships. In the previous twenty-four iterations, the Mountain Championships were only a “Trophy” event and not equal in stature to the recent IAAF Athletics championships in Berlin or any of the road events similarly recognized. While there are four team and individual titles up for grabs, the Championships have more of the feel of a well-attended cross country meet...except that the course designed must have harbored a serious grudge against the runners! The Mountain Running Championships alternate between a year of straight climbing (the “Up” year) and a year of climbing and descending (the “Up and Down” year). 2009 featured the “Up and Down” version which makes for fantastic spectating of the runners as they punish their lungs on the way up and their quads on the way down. 

The Italians have been dominant in this competition since its inception. Their dominance of the men's senior race borders on that of Kenyan steeplechasers. The Azzuri have won the team title at every race except 2006 when the Eritrean men made history by knocking them off. They would come in as favorites on their home course, but Turkey, Eritrea and the US men, fresh off a bronze medal-performance last year would be gunning for them as well. The senior women's race has been a more level event as Italy has “only” won 10 of the 24 championships with France, Switzerland and the US each bringing home multiple titles. The senior men race up to six runners with four counting for the scoring while the women race four and score three. The junior races are much more unpredictable affairs with only two runners scoring out of three total for the women, three scoring out of four possible runners for the men. Italy has won 9 junior men's titles, but Eritrea and Turkey have been multiple winners as well. Slovenia has the most women's junior titles with five but Italy is, of course, second with two. A total of 36 nations brought at least one runner.  While an impressive total for a niche race (some countries are, admittedly, naturally at a disadvantage), there is still much room for growth at this event, especially for non-European countries. 

The festivities started the day before the race with a welcome address and parade of athletes through the twisting streets of the large town of the region—Chiavenna. The parade wound its way through the narrow twisting streets of the old town: past old men drinking wine and coffee in the piazza and kids getting a late summer gelato. Each nation carried its flag and its contingent marched through town to the approving cheers and the incessant clanging of cowbells. These were not your garden variety, hand held bells, but rather the kind that let you know where your cows are two valleys away in the Alps that certain spectators would lug around town for the parade and up the mountain the next day for the race! By far the most boisterous cheers came for the Italians and this is the only World Championships I know of where the spectators can join in the athletes' parade after it passes, which many took opportunity of and did.

The town of Madesimo is a ski town that feels almost deserted in the when hundreds of pairs of extremely-fit quadriceps descend on it. The course started at about 5600 feet and was a loop of 4.3 kilometers (2.67 miles) that would challenge the most fit runner climbing and descending 275 meters each time around. The runners started at the low point, climbed a very steep ski hill, leveled off for a bit at the top before screaming back down the same hill they climbed to the start. Junior women ran the loop once, junior men and senior women twice (5.35 miles for 550 meters of elevation change) and the senior men three times (8.01 miles for 825 meters of elevation change). As with any good cross country race, the course was dotted with spectators wearing and waving national flags, beating cowbells, carrying clipboards and even wearing funny-colored wigs. The main differences between this and its counterparts just getting under way in the USA being that world championships were awarded for every race and the view from the course included alpine meadows, ski hills and a view down the valleys towards Milan.

Race day dawned a cool 50 degrees with a bright sun, cloudless sky and a nippy breeze for spectating that made it almost ideal for running. The junior women took the course first and eagerly pumped their way up the hill. Turkey grabbed the early lead and their flag-clad spectators cheered them wildly up the hill. Yasemin Can ran this early wave of enthusiasm into a lead by the time the women topped out the main hill climb. Close on her heels, however was Footlocker Finalist Megan Morgan of San Diego. While Morgan briefly claimed the lead at the top of the hill she was passed quickly and decisively by Can on the last descent and ended up second. Still, her finish was the best ever individual performance by an American woman at the Championships, junior or senior, and bodes well for the future. The US women were in 7th place as Robyn Arnold rounded out the scoring team in 23rd place. Turkey ran away with the title scoring 5 points with Romania and Poland also claiming podium places.

The junior men's race thinned out quickly the first time up the hill and a duel with two runners each from Turkey and Italy looked to be in the offing as the rest of the pack lagged behind. However, at the start of the second loop, Xavier Chevrier of Italy positioned himself as a strong contender to be considered for Italy's senior team in the upcoming years as he delighted his horn-blowing country-mates by surging away for a victory that eventually totaled almost a full minute. With Muzaffer Bayram and Alper Demir able to hold off a hard-charging Brandon Lord of the USA, who moved from 9th position to 4th on the second uphill, however, it was Turkey who let down the home crowd gently to bring home the team title. Lord's finish was the best ever for an American junior male runner at these championships and with the Chattanooga, Tennessee native making his first ever real effort at mountain racing, there is a strong foundation for the US Senior men to work with as well. Great Britain and Northern Ireland took a distant third to the victorious Turks and the Italians with the American men finishing strong in 8th position out of 16 total teams. Dan Nafziger and Brian Rooney in 39th and 41st place rounded out the scoring unit with Tim Smith a bit back.

In the senior women's race, the American women were “hungry” in the words of Brandy Erholz of Bailey, Colorado to avenge their disappointing 9th place finish of a year ago and reclaim the form that took them to team gold in 2006 and 2007. There was a lot of jockeying early in the race behind Valentina Belotti who kept the home crowd boisterous, leading by over 30 seconds after the first lap. Early in the second lap, however, it was clear that not just Belotti was inspired by the crowd as Italy moved into the top three positions by top of the hill and never looked back. With the team race seemingly in hand, only two questions remained: Would Italy be able to go perfect and who would get the other team medals? Italy indeed moved on through the ecstatic cheers that resounded off the neighboring peaks to claim their perfect team performance although it was Elisa Desco who took home the world title with Belotti in second and Maria Grazia Roberti in third. The US women running in a loose pack throughout the race stayed strong late to secure the bronze medal behind Italy and Great Britain and Northern Ireland.  Brandy Erholz led the pack in 10th with Christine Lundy in 13th, Megan Kimmel in 15th and Megan Lund in 17th. 

The senior men faced three daunting laps of the course and the home crowd was still charged from the women's sweep, especially with four-time champion Marco De Gasperi leading the men. The race did not disappoint as multiple men held the early lead with Teklay Azerya of Eritrea looking the most convincing, grabbing a substantial lead on the second hill climb. In a potential harbinger of things to come at these championships, which have had mostly European, North American and Antipodean (Ausi and Kiwi) participants since its inception, East Africans held the top five positions on the second uphill with Eritrea, Rwanda and Uganda all represented. The Italians did come on strong in the second half of the race to give Eritrea a strong run for their money, but the Eritreans with their four scoring runners all placing in the top ten, did what only their compatriots in 2006 were able to do—beat the Italian senior men at a World Mountain Running Championship. Azerya was run down at the top of the second hill climb by 2007 Junior champion Geoffrey Kusuro of Uganda who pulled away for a substantial victory. At only 21 years of age, Kusuro has a chance to make a name for himself in the way that De Gasperi of Italy and Jonathan Wyatt of New Zealand (who skipped this year's race for a mountain marathon in Austria) have done—become dominant in the mountains. With his teammate James Kibet in 3rd and Martin Toroitich in 14th, the Ugandans, missing only a solid fourth runner to be a podium team, firmly placed themselves as a team to watch in the upcoming years here. The American men, coming off their first-ever team medal (bronze) at the Championships last year were looking to repeat but were stymied by one of the strongest fields ever assembled. They still finished a very respectable 6th with 22-year old University of Richmond senior Andrew Benford, the first person male or female to make the US Senior team after running in the Junior ranks, overtaking Joe Gray on the final downhill to lead a one-two USA punch in 13th and 16th positions. Also scoring for the men were Matt Byrne in 42nd and Zac Freudenburg in 46th. With Ricky Gates and Tim Parr in 47th and 48th, the US men had a tight pack, but they needed it a bit more forward to get on the medal stand as Turkey collected the bronze following Eritrea and Italy.

In a bit of surprise post-race news, three Eritrean runners did not attend the closing ceremonies to collect their gold medals as they defected. While this does not bode well either for the Eritrean hopes of maintaining their top spot on the podium or permission to travel to these championships—it is not the first time this has happened after a major championships—the senior men's race did show a possible changing of the guard. Of the top ten runners, four were from Eritrea, two from Uganda and one from Rwanda presaging, perhaps, an East African entry into the mountain races in a similar manner to their emergence onto the roads and on the track over the past few decades. With a bronze medal performances from the US Senior women's team, a strong showing by a young Senior men's team, a silver medal from the Junior Women's race and a 4th place finish in the Junior Men's race, the talent for continued success is in place for the US Mountain Running Team. As for the championships, with 36 countries from every continent sending runners and new powers emerging while old ones stay strong, the future looks bright as well. Overall, the low-key atmosphere, the accessibility of top athletes to the spectators, solid organization and spectacular settings make the World Mountain Running Championships a diamond in the rough of top-level athletics competition that every true fan owes it to themselves to attend.

Full results available HERE.

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