Simon Gutierrez wins World Masters Running Champs in Czech Republic

September 6, 2008

Dolni Morava, Czech Republic ---- At today’s World Masters Mountain Running Championships is Dolni Morava, Czech Republic, Teva U.S. Mountain Running Team member Simon Gutierrez, 42, Alamosa, CO, won his third straight title. His time of 50:10 over the 11.3 kilometer mostly uphill course bested the second place finisher Gilles Convert of France by 38 seconds.

“I am very pleased to have won my third straight World Masters’ title. Today’s margin of victory was the biggest (of the three)....a good tune up for world’s in eight days,” wrote Gutierrez by e-mail following his victory.

“Traveling to the race venue, (the ski resort of Doni Morava), from Prague was a 4.5 hour drive and proved to be as big a challenge as defending my world title. It is hard to read road signs when you have absolutely no idea what the words mean. I arrived at 4.30 p.m., the evening prior, a bi t weary but happy to have found my English friends in a very nice hotel across the hall from my room.

“The course went by my hotel at the 5.5 km mark so I went for my second run of the day (pre race day) and looked at the first 5.5 kilometers of the course. It was very picturesque and scaled the side of the valley on the way to the ski mountain. This is where the real mountain running began.

“(on race day) I took the lead immediately and lead start to finish. We had three good, steep climbs, while the rest of the course was gradual climbs on forested paths. The total climb was about 800 meters and much to my dismay also had some downhill sections (about 180 meters total) which I jogged (the course went from a low point of 608 meters to a high point of 1254 meters).

“My legs feel fine and I consider myself lucky, as I got picked for doping control which meant I was one of the very few that got a ride down the mountain. For sure I did not want to run=2 0down with worlds (the World Mountain Running Trophy on September 14 in Sierre Crans Montana, Switzerland) only in a week’s time.”

Thanks to Simon for his post event report.

Additionally, Mark Nesfeder represented the USA in the 50-54 age group where he posted a time of 1:20:53 to finish 76^th in his age group. Anna Pichrtova, Czech Republic, was the overall women’s winner timed in 55:50.

A total of 1,868 runners participated in this, the 8^th Annual World Mountain Running Championships. There were 1,373 runners in the 11.3 kilometer race (runners up to 54 years of age) and 495 runners in the 9.9 kilometer race (runners from 55 year of age to 80).

Complete results at:

www.wmmr2008.sportsoft.cz/absresults.aspx?r=1&lng=en