Northern Ireland Mountain Running Association
www.nimra.org.uk

 

World Trophy, Alaska

Fri 26 September 2003 - Ian Taylor

Congratulations to the Northern Ireland team at the recent World Trophy held near Anchorage in Alaska, USA. The Mens team packed closely together to come 13th out of 18 teams, compared to 22nd from 26 last year. With 25% less entrants, our finishing positions (43rd - 92nd) were ahead of all our team members in 2002, when the first NI finisher was in 93rd place.
Results
1 Marco De Gasperi (Italy) 50:30
43 Neil Carty 56:58
54 Alan McKibbin 57:53
59 Simon Taylor 58:18
72 Brian Ervine 60:00
86 David McNeilly 63:14
92 Alex Brennan 64:49

Behind the Italian Team in first place (a record they have maintained since the event began), the UK teams did well, with England in second place (6th in 2002), Scotland 6th (18th)and Wales in 9th place (19th). This year we moved ahead of Ireland, with the latter being in 17th place compared to 20th in 2002.

In the Ladies event we also improved our performance, being 12th team out of 15 compared to 19th out of 21 in 2002. Again all our team finished ahead (in 40 - 59th places)of our finishers in 2002 (59th - 85th)
Results
1 Melissa Moon NZL 39:02
2 Angela Mudge Sco 39:41
3 Tracey Brindley SCO 39:59
40 Tricia Sloan 46:37
47 Alwynne Shannon 48:51
52 Sharon McBurney 49:49
59 Violet Linton 51:35

Tricia put in her usual consistent performance while Alwynne surprised us all by her great result. Sharon had an off-day, demonstrated by her faster time in the open race over the same course on the following day. Violet had been suffering from a cold and was fortunate to have recovered sufficiently to run.

Scotland, or should we say Carnethy Club, had an excellent day, taking the gold medal in first team place, compared to 8th last year. England were in 6th place, Wales in 9th and Ireland behind us in 14th position.

Race conditions were excellent all week until Saturday morning of the first days competition when snow appeared on the course. Studded shoes were in short supply but highly necessary on the snowy descent track on the Saturday and the now muddy climbing path on the Sunday.
Despite beating the English into second place in the mens race, the Italian team still travelled back to Italy via British Airways and Heathrow. As a training tip for the future you might like to know that the Italian mens team, including their individual champion, relaxed on the way home by reading an English language magazine, although the magazine was mostly pictures and orientated to performance in different more laid back activity.

Senior Mens Results
Senior Womens Results