OREANDA-NEWS. Italy’s Antonella Confortola and Eritrea’s Petro Mamu were the winners at the Grintovec Mountain Running race, the second stage of the Mountain Running World Cup 2016, in the Slovenian town of Kamnik on Sunday (24).

Confortola, one of Italy’s leading mountain runners and cross-country skiers for the past two decades, was too strong for local favourite Lucija Krko? and defending champion Karmen Klancnik. Antonella started the race with her own pace that the other women could simply not follow.

In the men’s race, the top African contenders set off cautiously, knowing that the steeper parts of the course would come later on. On the ‘saddle’, about two-thirds into the race, the leading group of five athletes were still close together, but defending champion Nejc Kuhar was not among them.

Mamo, aware of how tough the course was, timed his run to perfection and went on to win comfortably in 1:22:30. Kenya’s Francis Wangari finished second in 1:23:19 and Slovenia’s Rok Bratina was the best local runner, finishing third in 1:23:56. Isaac Kosgei, the 2014 winner, finished fourth.

The next stage of the WMRA World Cup will be on 31 July in Telfes-Stubaitall, Austria.