25th WORLD MOUNTAIN RUNNING CHAMPIONSHIP, ITALY, 6 September
This Sunday sees the 25th running of the World Mountain Running Championship at Campodolcino in Italy, but the first in which it has full IAAF status as a world athletics championship.
Unfortunately the Australian team has been decimated by unavailabilities and injuries with the highest medal hope, Veronica Wallington, 3rd in the junior girls in 2007 and 6th in 2008, suffering a stress fracture only a few days ago and staying home in the USA where she has taken up an athletics scholarship.
The strongest performers are four-time national men’s champion Scott McTaggart and the women’s team of Jessamy Hosking, Kate Siebold-Crosbie, Kathryn Ewels, and Hubertien Wichers. Ewels finished 5th in the World Orienteering Championships on 25 August while Hosking and Siebold-Crosbie are experienced internationals, with Wichers a former national champion.
Runners will compete over a very scenic 4.3 km up and down loop with a climb of 275 metres per lap. The course lengths are as follows:
Men’s race
Distance: 13,020 m; 3 laps; +825m difference of level
Women & Junior Men race
Distance: 8,680 m; 2 laps; +550m difference of level
Junior Women’s race
Distance: 4,340 m; 1 lap; +275m difference of level
The race program is:
09:30 Start of Junior Women’s race
10:00 Start of Junior Men’s race
10:45 Start of Women’s race
11:45 Start of Men’s race
Australian team:
Senior men: Scott McTaggart, Stephen Brown, John Winsbury
Senior women: Jessamy Hosking, Kate Siebold-Crosbie, Kathryn Ewels, Hubertien Wichers
Junior men: Jordan Nelson, Stephen McShane, Oscar Phillips, Charles Brooks
Junior women: Briony Shaw, Kimberley Duthie
Event website: www.wmrc2009.org