U.S. Women Win Gold at Fifth Annual NACAC Mountain Running Championships
Colorado Springs, CO — For the fourth time in five years, (in 2006 the U.S. did not field a men’s or women’s team at the event) the U.S. women’s team won gold at the NACAC Mountain Running Championships which were held in Tepatitlan, Jalisco, Mexico, on Saturday, July 5, over a nine kilometer uphill course.
It was nearly a sweep for the U.S. women led by Kasie Enman, 28, Huntington, VT, who finished in first place with a time of 53:55. Second place honors went to a Mexican runner in 54:13, followed by Alison Bryant, 28, Elkin, NC, in third timed in 54:57 and Carly Graytock, 29, Cambridge, MA, in fourth with a time of 56 minutes.
The Mexican women’s team won the silver medal with Canada earning the bronze
medal. The U.S. men settled for silver, having won gold in the previous years a team participated in the event. Shiloh Mielke, 28, Weaverville, NC, finished in third place timed in 43:42 followed by Aaron Saft, 29, Fletcher, NC, in sixth with a time of 45:09 and Jason Bryant, 35, Elkin, NC, in ninth with a time of 48:56. Mexico won the gold with Canada in bronze medal position.
“The course was fabulous,” said Saft by phone two days after the event, “It started at about 6,000 feet and ascended to about 8,000 feet. The race started on a dirt road, like cobblestone with rocks embedded into the dirt. Most of the trail was like this and was a bit slippery because it rained most everyday. It was tough for the U.S. team coming to altitude, so we all went out conservatively knowing that we’d have some trouble with our breathing. The Mexicans fielded their best mountain runners and they went out really fast. Some of them came back to us and it made a great race.”
The overall winner was the youngest member of the Mexican team, Juan Carlos Carera who, according to Saft ran, “an incredibly fast tim of 41:17. Carera was the top junior for the Mexican team at the 2007 World Trophy finishing in sixth place overall. In second place at the NACAC event was Ranulfo Sanchez in 42:08 who was a bronze medalist in the senior men’s race at the 2002World Trophy.
Bryant, who also provided a phone interview, added more details about the course, “There was a little bit of single track, and it was in a farming region. We saw mules on the course the day before the race when we previewed the route and we saw a cow on the course on race day.
Bryant was also impressed with the race organization, “They did an excellent job hosting the event. The hospitality was great, the meals, the lodging, everything. We spent a lot of time with the Canadian team and bit less with the Mexican team because of the language barrier, but some of the Canadian and U.S. team members spoke Spanish so it worked out well. We ate all of our meals together (all three teams) and we ran the course on Friday as a group. It was a great experience.
According to Bryant, the race director Miguel Lopez was very glad to have teams from three countries which he said added a lot to the event. In addition to the team competition – with the women racing first, followed by the men – there was an open race and a junior race. The open race was also a 9 km while the juniors ran 6 km.
This event served as a tune-up for NACAC teams in preparation for the World Mountain Running Trophy (WMRT) events to be held in Sierre Crans-Montana, Switzerland on September 14.
The U.S. hosted the NACAC event in 2004 and 2005, Mexico hosted in 2006, and Canada hosted in 2007.
“Jason Bryant did a terrific job this year organizing the U.S. team. We congratulate him and the team for bringing home lots of hardware – gold and silver for the U.S. teams as well as three individual medals – one gold and two bronze,” said USATF Mountain Ultra Trail Council Chairperson Nancy Hobbs.
For additional information on the USA Mountain Running Program visit www.usmrt.com,
www.trailrunner.com, and www.usatf.org. For more details about Mexico’s mountain running visit http://www.atletismoenmexico.com/.
Teen Phenom Cain Added to Star Studded Boston NBal GP – January 10, 2014
“Uptight” – ‘My Word’ column by Tom Derderian – January 6, 2014
Tolling the Bell for Sandy Hook, by Beth Shluger – January 6, 2014
Click Here: cheap parramatta eels jersey