With 24  hours to go to the World Mountain Running Championships which will be held for the eighth time in Italy. The 30th edition of the WMRC is going to take place on 14th September in Casette di Massa.

Almost 400 athletes representing 40 countries and five Continents have arrived in Massa and have already “invaded” the seafront of the tuscan town. With the Apuan Alps on the backdrop the four races for the world titles and medals will be staged. The programme will start on Sunday at 9.15 with  the women’s junior race (3.8 km/drop 225 m) followed at 10 by the junior men’s race (8.4 km/drop 465 m).

Then it will be the turn of the two senior races. The women’s race will start at 11 followed by the men’s race at 12. Runners will cross the finish-line inside the marble cave of the “Bacino di Gioia” , the final part of a spectacular “only up” course which goes through a white tunnel inside the mountain before the last steep climb which leads to the upper terrace facing the sea from the distance.

The press conference of the World Championships took place today at the Theatre Guglielmi. The Mayor of Massa Alessandro Volpi made the home’s honours. “For our town such an event at International level represents a great opportunity to promote our region and offers the chance to make our great nature beauties known, ranging from the sea to the mountains in just few kilometres.

The competition, the athletes who come to Massa from all over the world are an amazing way to promote our region but also an important cooperation between countries and institutions. I am pleased that these Championships which gather athletes from different nationalities and ethnic groups, take place here in Massa in a delicate historic period. This does not only mean that this region can welcome people from all over the world, but also that sport and its values  continue to be an extrahordinary vehicle to overcome tensions”

Then it was the turn of the FIDAL Council Member Anna Rita Balzani who sent the greetings from Italian Athletics Federation President Alfio Giomi. “The Italian Federation has soon believed in this project and has taken the challenge to stage mountain running in such an inedit contest. I would like to thank all the Insitutions and the Enterprises, above all the Local Government of Massa which gave us their support. I am pleased to think that the marble block (donated by Ezio Ronchieri spa), from which the statue of Pietro Mennea will be moulded, comes from this region. Today Italy celebrates the Mennea Day 35 years after the 200 metres world record set by the great Italian star in Mexico City in 1979. It’s a special day to commemorate a champion who left us too early”

“Staging a World Mountain Running Championship in a marble cave in a sea town with amazing and fascinating mountains represents our new challenge. This shows that this discipline can take place everywhere. I want to thank everyone for welcoming us. This means that sport values are universal and here countries like Russia and the Ukraine compete one against the other without problems. From tomorrow we will look to the future at the Congress of the World Mountain Running Association in the historic Palazzo Ducale in Massa and we will start talking about the 31st edition of the World Mountain Running Championships. I am sure that this will be a memorable edition, not only for the results but also because this amazing backdrop will remain in our memory for a long time”, said Bruno Gozzelino, the President of the World Mountain Running Association.

Some athletes who will take part in the Championships, like Alice Gaggi (reigning world champion), Bernard Dematteis (European champion), and some International stars like Eritrean Peter Mamo (World champion in 2012), Austrian Andrea Mayr (more titme world senior champion in the women’s race) and US Mandy Ortiz (reigning world junior champion).

Thirty-year-old Petro Mamo grew up in the farm owned by his parents in Barentu in the South-Western part of Eritrea, at 2400 of altitude. Next Sunday he will start as the favourite considering his first place in the senior race in the World Cup Ranking.    , said Mamo. Two years ago Mamo won his first and only world title in Temu-Ponte di Legno in the previous edition of the Championships held in Italy.

In that edition Andrea Mayr clinched her fourth world gold medal adding it to a trophy cabinet featuring three European titles which make her one of the most successful ever athletes in this discipline. “As you can see from the shoes (dirtied by the white mud of the marble cave), I have just made a warm-up training on the course”, said the 34-year-old Austrian Marathon record holder who also as a doctor in her everyday life – I know this area because I spent a holiday period in the past and when I heard that the World Championships would take place here I was very happy to come back”, said Mayr.

Amanda Mandy Louise Ryan Ortiz, the reigning world junior champion, was the first US runner to win the the World Under 20 title in the history of the World Championships in the 2013 edition at Krynica Zdr (Polad), where she won the team silver medal in her first international experience. She is the daughter of a past athlete, as her mother Anita Ortiz, who was born in 1964, compted seven times for the US National Mountain running team. “It’s never easy to confirm a title”, said the 19-year-old runner from Colorado.

“Each race has its own history. It’s the first time that I come to Italy and I was soon curious by the kind of course which awaits us in this competition. It will be a nice competition”, said Ortiz.

Source: World Mountain Running Championships

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