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

Neil Carty and Fiona Maxwell were the leading Northern Ireland performers at the World Mountain Running Championships at Ovronnaz in the Swiss Alps at the weekend. The 17 strong NI squad were competing against athletes from 32 nations in the 23^rd World Championship and recorded good team placings in both senior and junior categories.

Carty was competing in his 16 consecutive World Championship and finished top Irish runner in 77^th place in the 8 mile senior men?s race while Maxwell, the British over 40 Champion, was well up in 43^rd in the 5 mile senior women?s race. Noel Collins was the leading junior man in 49^th place over a 5 mile course with Angela Speight 32^nd in the 2.5 mile junior women?s race.

The NI Senior men?s team were 20^th , the Senior women 15^th, both junior teams 14^th and all finished ahead of their Republic of Ireland counterparts in the team rankings. Marco De Gaspari took the men?s individual title for the 5^th time and lead Italy to the team title while former European Champion Anna Pirchtova of the Czech Republic secured her first World title with USA taking the team title.

77 N Carty 59.57

89 S Duncan 61.07

94 D Woods 61.41

122 S Cunningham 65.09

127 P Blaney 66.31

130 G Bailey 67.35

43 F Maxwell 45.57

61 A Shannon 48.14

66 T Sloan 49.51

70 F Orr 50.50

49 N Collins 41.54

67 C Collins 45.32

69 C Moore 46.12

72 J Wilson 47.16

32 A Speight 23.46

41 M Sturm 24.31

51 K Iveston 29.33

Report by Brian Ervine