Mitja Kosovelj of Slovenia winning the Smarna Gora run in Ljubljana (© organisers)
The final race of the seven event 2008 WMRA Mountain Running Grand Prix series was held on 4 October in Slovenia. The race chosen to host the Grand Prix final was the 29th edition of the Smarna Gora, Ljubljana.
Jonathan Wyatt (NZL), as predicted, did enough to place himself first in the final GP ranking. He finished fourth today, and with 394 points was well ahead of series runner-up Marco Gaiardo (ITA) with 350 points.
Winner of today’s race, Mitja Kosovelj (SLO) moved up to third in the ranking with 297 points.
In the women’s division, a new race record was set today by World champion Andrea Mayr (AUT) who won comfortably from last year’s winner, Victoria Wilkinson (GBR). Overall in the season these two finished 5th and 3rd respectively leaving the overall GP title to Anna Frost (NZL). Frost, suffering from a slight throat infection could only manage 8th in the race.
Mitja Kosovelj’s sister, Mateja, made it a family celebration finishing 3rd in the race and second in the Grand Prix ranking.
So New Zealand can boast both GP winners. Wyatt and Frost are based in Europe for much of the year.
Danny Hughes for the IAAF
RESULTS
Men
1 Mitja Kosovelj SLO 40:22
2 Robert Krupicka CZE 40:57
3 Marco Gaiardo ITA 41:16
4 Jonathan Wyatt NZL 41:42
5 Emanuelle Manzi ITA 42:14
6 Andrzg Dlugosz POL 42:18
Women
1 Andrea Mayr AUT 45:24 (record)
2 Victoria Wilkinson GBR 48:02
3 Mateja Kosovelj SLO 48:41
4 Pavla Matjasova 49:26
5 Anna Pichrtova CZE 50:11
Full results via www.wmra.info
2008 Grand Prix winners - Updated 5 Oct
Men
1 WYATT Jonathan NZL 394
2 GAIARDO Marco ITA 350
3 KOSOVELJ Mitja SLO 297
4 DLUGOSZ Andrzej POL 277
5 KROELL Markus AUT 243
6 KRUPICKA Robert CZE 217
Women
1 FROST Anna NZL 315
2 KOSOVELJ Mateja SLO 292
3 WILKINSON Victoria GBR 284
4 MATYASOVA Pavla CZE 279
5 MAYR Andrea AUT 270
6 MILESOVA Iva CZE 250