September 14^th saw the 24^th edition of the World Mountain Running Trophy being held at Crans-Montana, Switzerland.  This was the 2^nd year in a row the premier race on the international mountain running calendar was held in the picturesque Swiss Alps, which in a mere couple of months will be covered in thick in snow.  A team of 14 NI runners attended the event which will be the last time the home nations will be entered due to next year’s edition becoming an official IAAF World Championship.  This means that there must now be Great Britain and NI teams entered instead of separate countries.  Ballymoney’s Pegasus runner Jason Wilson was part of the junior men’s team.  His race required running 5.25 miles over a 730m (about 2400ft) vertical climb, simply meaning a lot of hard work was ahead!  The field of 75 runners comprised of athletes from as far afield as Mexico and New Zealand.

The weather was poor to say the least, with NI’s bad August definitely matched in the Swiss Alps.  Jason managed to run a solid race, keeping in touch with runners from Croatia and Mexico for the entire race.  In the end, a sprint finish from 300m was required to beat the top Croatian runner.  In the end, Jason produced the junior team’s top performance to come home in 63^rd with a time of 50:43.  Jason was very pleased to beat runners from Croatia, Ireland, Canada and Macedonia as well as his team-mates!  The winner was Norwegian dynamo Sindre Burass (42:12) who will surely be a star of the future!

The experience was great for Jason which will certainly set him up for the in-coming cross country season.  Watch this space!