Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance Championships 16th

"The world's first organised mountain race took place in Grasmere, Cumbria, England in 1850 and almost 160 years later the neighbouring Lake District town of Keswick hosted the first Commonwealth Mountain and Ultra Distance Championships.

The event was hailed a tremendous success and is being seen as the first major step towards getting mountain and long distance running included in the Commonwealth Games by 2018.

" "Over 200 athletes representing, Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, India, the Isle of Man, Kenya, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and the host nation England, took part in this inaugural event.

In the Men's Mountain races Kenyan Wilson Chenweno proved to be unbeatable winning both the uphill only race on Friday and the up and down race on the Sunday. In the uphill race Chenweno beat current World Mountain Running Champion Jonathan Wyatt by over half a minute and in the up and down race out sprinting England's Adam Grice in the final 800 metres.

Anna Frost of New Zealand was a clear winner of the Ladies uphill race to the top of Skiddaw. Katie Ingram of England was a comfortable second and also proved to be an eventual clear winner herself in the Ladies up and down race. Sarah Tunstall was second in the up and down race having just missing out on a medal in the recent World Mountain Championships in Italy where she had placed fourth.

The event was sanctioned by the Commonwealth Games Federation and the LOC had met all the criteria relating to the number of Countries and athletes taking part and were now working towards the recognition of Mountain Running and Ultra Distance running to move the sports on towards inclusion in the 2018 Games.

Results: http://www.cumbriacommonwealthchampionships.org/Results.htm

Adrian Woods for WMRA

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