Gripping competition and a local heroine – After a gripping race, local runner Jasmin Nunige and Sweden’s Jonas Buud came up trumps in Saturday’s ultra-distance marathon in the 23rd Davos swissalpine. In the K78, the Swiss managed to secure four places on the podium. By Anita Fuchs

Tina Turner’s song “Simply the Best” blares out from the speakers. The presenter’s voice cracks: “This is the winner!” With a contented smile and the winner’s wreath around his neck, Jonas Buud turns into the final bend, under a slightly overcast sky but in an ideal temperature. His wife Zandra, who competed in the K31 from Davos to Filisur (winners Josef Vogt and Maja Luder-Gautschi), gives him a hug and a kiss.

Apart from the aching legs, the winner of the swissalpine marathon says he is fine. He makes no distinction between this and last year’s race. “I ran at the same speed both times, and didn’t look around at the competition.”

Buud had already wrapped up his first interview by the time Konrad von Allmen from Olten crossed the finish line to thunderous applause and with a pain-racked face. “The 78 kilometers were not only physically challenging, but mentally too” explains the formidable second-placer in a press conference barely two hours later. The former top long-distance triathlete speaks of serious cramps on the Panorama Trail, but also of the pressure.

“I did not know what the distance was between myself and the person behind me”. No complaints whatsoever about the demanding “Mountain Classic” came from René Fuchser from Dübendorf, however, who turned up the heat after Bergün, to come in third, as he had done a year earlier in the K42 (Bergün–Davos, winners Max Frei and Diana Lehmann).

Steady tempo

Like Buud, Nunige can enjoy celebrating a second win at the swissalpine marathon. “It is a wonderful feeling to be the first to cross the finish line in Davos” says the local heroine with a delighted smile after her victorious home run. On the ascent to Keschhütte, the highest point in the race at 2,632 m above sea level, she snatched first place from Elizabeth “Lizzy” Hawker, who, at the start of the race was the favourite to win. While Nunige then kept up a steady tempo, Hawker slowed down slightly, suffering from mild after-pains from a stress fracture. “After having to throw up, I even considered giving up” says the winner of the previous two races.

Nunige recalls a positive experience. “In the Teufi area, someone told me that I was leading by five minutes. I then thought that not much more could happen to me in the remaining seven kilometers” says Nunige, reflecting on the final stretch. In that moment she saw in her mind’s eye pictures from her victory in 2005. And she plainly appears to have carried these all the way to the finish. Deborah Balz from eastern Switzerland also looked ecstatic as she came in third after the Italian, Monica Casiraghi (winner in 2003 and 2004), pulled out of the race in Chants. Even a fall twelve kilometers from the finish line could not keep the Swiss runner, formerly a successful duathlete and triathlete, just like von Allmen, away from the podium.

Olympic competitor runs the K21

An Olympic athlete figured among the 5,059 participants (including the 450 alpinathletes last Sunday) in the form of Marcel Tschopp. The dual Swiss-Liechtenstein national, who will be representing Liechtenstein in the marathon on 24th August, undertook the K21– which starts off on the world-famous Sunniberg Bridge in Klosters – as a training run on Saturday, and finished in an impressive second place behind the Briton, Adrian Marriott. Two top long-distance runners, Dario Cologna and Toni Livers narrowly missed a place on the podium, achieving fourth and sixth place respectively. Their Swiss colleagues Seraina Boner and Seraina Mischol, however, succeeded in taking a double victory in the half-marathon, just as they had done a year ago.

26 July 2008 – Summary of results
K78. Men: 1. Jonas Buud (Schweden) 6:00:26. 2. Konrad von Allmen (Olten) 16:17 zurück. 3. René Fuchser (Dübendorf) 18:45. 4. Pius Hunold (Benken SG) 21:10. 5. Anssi Raittila (FIN-Helsinki) 25:53. 6. Tobias Brack (GER-Kempten) 30:03. 7. Anton Philipp (GER-Weitnau) 43:09. 8. Christian Stork (GER-Rettenberg) 44:58. 9. Marco Gazzola (Bellinzona) 45:48. 10. Beat Bieri (Zweisimmen) 47:37.
Women: 1. Jasmin Nunige (Davos) 7:00:36. 2. Elizabeth Hawker (Grossbritannien) 10:30 zurück. 3. Deborah Balz (Grub SG) 30:50. 4. Jeanette Dalcolmo-Jegen (Dürnten) 46:03 5. Denise Zimmermann (Mels) 1:01:37.
K42. Men: 1. Max Frei (GER-Freiburg) 3:22:10. 2. Koen van Rie (Belgien) 8:20 zurück. 3. Dirk Strothmann (GER-Borgholzhausen) 8:22.
Women: 1. Diana Lehmann (GER-Potsdam) 4:04:34. 2. Carolina Reiber (Zürich) 3:18 zurück. 3. Regula Meier (Chur) 9:52.
C42. Men: 1. Peter Ricklin (St. Gallen) 2:57:57. 2. Peter Gschwend (Kloten) 8:21. 3. Michel Jobin (Birmenstorf) 9:05.
Women: 1. Marion Hebding (GER-Mannheim) 3:24:33. 2. Edith Zwahlen (Hünenberg) 12:23. 3. Helena Küng (Glarus) 14:58.
K31. Men: 1. Josef Vogt (LIE-Balzers) 2:01:49. 2. Isidor Christen (Buchrain) 3:57 zurück. 3. David Symons (GBR-Thames Ditton) 5:55.
Women: 1. Maja Luder-Gautschi (Bertschikon) 2:16:26. 2. Sonja Lutz (GER-Freiburg) 5:35 zurück. 3. Saskia Bösch (Davos Platz) 8:04.
K21. Men: 1. Adrian Marriott (Grossbritannien) 1:20:34. 2. Marcel Tschopp (Winterthur) 3:42. 3. Christian Puricelli (Porza) 4:15.
Women: 1. Seraina Boner (Klosters) 1:34:59. 2. Seraina Mischol (Davos Frauenkirch) 0:37. 3. Annette Bendig (Chur) 3:57.
K11. Men: 1. Hanspeter Spirig (Zollikofen) 43:46. 2. Alain Testorelli (Intragna) 2:28. 3. Reto Strübi (Teufen AR) 4:56.
Women: 1. Nina Högger (Grabs) 55:27. 2. Marianne Hausheer (Davos Platz) 0:07. 3. Carolyn Forsyth (Oberägeri) 0:25.