Race Report by BOGBOY

Trofeo Vanoni is a traditional late Autumn ‘end of season’ mountain relay race where each leg starts and finishes in Morbegno, Sondrio in the Lombardy Region of northern Italy. Over the years it has maintained a strong link with the Snowdon Race, welcoming a team selected from the front end of that race which typically takes place back in July.

Unsurprisingly, this year is different, no Snowdon Race and no Snowdon team at Vanoni. However, 25-year-old Zak Hanna, a Salomon and Newcastle & District AC athlete from the slopes of Slieve Croob was introduced to the Vanoni in 2016, when still a novice to mountain racing, he was invited to travel as part of an Irish team. He helped the team to 11th overall out of 143. Personally, he recorded 32:38 for his leg, 24th fastest and with 21:35 for the climb (12th fastest) and 11:03 for the descent.

Hanna was hooked, he loved the atmosphere, the buzz in the village set amongst the towering mountains and the love for mountain racing oozing out of everyone he met. He didn’t make it back in 2017, but in 2018 after a superb Snowdon Race in July he was invited as part of the ‘Snowdon select’ and helped the team to a great 2nd place behind a strong French team and ahead of the top Italians. It was a wet day and times were slower but he still managed an improvement of 32 seconds from a couple of years earlier and 13th fastest overall (32:06 with the 9th fastest climb of 21:42). Continue reading →

A number of people have been asking about ordering new club coats (an ideal Christmas gift for the one you love!). In the present climate, the best way to do this is by contacting the supplier directly. The details are as follows: Malachy Mullan (MJM Design) – 07934774693 – you can pay him directly and he will arrange delivery with you. The cost for a coat with club logo and initials is £44.

Report by BOGBOY

After a successful racing weekend in Casto, northwest of Brescia, Dromara and Newcastle & District & Salomon athlete, Zak Hanna decamped Monday to Chiavenna in the Val Bregaglia, in the Italian Alps only 14km shy of the Swiss border.

He had built further on his reputation as a Vertical Kilometre specialist with a superb 2^nd place in the Vertical Nasego just 35 seconds behind the Italian number one, Henri Aymonod. However, he had taken the scalps of world class mountain runners including 2019 World Cup Series, Scot Andy Douglas and Tim Beçan of Slovenia.

Like a kid in the playground and the sweetshop all at the same time, Hanna couldn’t resist running and jumping around all week exploring the steep sided valley where the mountains soar to nearly 3,700 metres (from only 350 metres altitude in the village of Chiavenna). At the same time, he knew he had to recover, so after the minimum of tapers (much reduced climbing on Friday and Saturday), he declared himself ready to do battle on Sunday morning.

Looking closely at the profile below tells a story – it looks a steady enough climb but it starts steep and goes on steep – 1,000m of climbing (from 352m to 1,352m above sea level – nearly 3,300ft) in only 3,030m of distance (less than 2 miles) – average gradient is 33% or 1 in 3 – now that’s steep. Continue reading →