Surprise winner at the Three Municipalities Half Marathon

The Three Municipalities Half Marathon from Leifers to Branzoll remains good ground for debutants. Two years ago, Olympian Yuri Floriani won, and last year Agnes Tschurtschenthaler won. This year there were two debut winners - both from Lauffreunde Sarntal. The victories were so surprising that even the speaker of the event only realized their leadership position shortly before the finish. Alex Stuffer and Kathrin Hanspeter won a half marathon for the first time in their careers, and with a superior personal best time. Stuffer, a native of Vipiteno who now lives in the Sarntal, took the lead at km 10 together with Massimo Leonardi from Trentino. The two ran side by side to the finish. Leonardi had already run significantly faster than Stuffer over 21.097 km, but the Trentino native had nothing to oppose him in the last few meters. “I probably benefited from my past as a middle-distance runner,” joked Stuffer after his success in the Three Municipalities Half Marathon. The 34-year-old improved his best time by almost three minutes to 1:10:20. Due to adverse conditions (4° Celsius, constant rain and snow almost down to the valley floor), some of the favorites such as Said Boudalia, Gianluca Pasetto and Sonia Lopes did not even start. Of the 300 or so people who registered, 243 were ultimately included in the ranking.

After Lopes' cancellation, the path to Mirella Bergamo's first victory in Branzoll seemed to be clear for the women. But the people of Trentino had not expected Kathrin Hanspeter. The woman from Sarnen celebrated her very first victory on the 21,097 km distance. Stuffer's clubmate was neck-and-neck with Bergamo. "Between km 15 and 17, Bergamo tried to make me tired with changes of pace. After that she fell back a bit. I really didn't expect this success," said Hanspeter. In 1:22:23, the 30-year-old improved her best time by around three minutes. For Stuffer and Hanspeter, the victory in the Three Municipalities Half Marathon was also their first victory in the Top7 running series. In the handbike category, Roland Ruepp has won all but once since 1995. This time the decision was extremely close. Ruepp won by three seconds ahead of Azzurro Giordano Tomasoni, who took part in the Paralympics in London this year.

Sarn daily victories, Vinschger overall victories: Michael Burger and Petra Pircher didn't let anything go wrong in the fight for the top 7 overall victory. The two runners from the Rennerclub Vinschgau secured overall victory with third place. Burger succeeded Rudi Brunner. For Pircher it was already the third overall victory. This makes the 39-year-old the record winner. The Top7 overall award ceremony with a raffle of two starting packages for the 2013 Berlin Marathon and seven wellness weekends will take place on Friday, November 23rd at Haus Unterland in Neumarkt. With more than 7000 participants, the Top7 series is by far the most important running series in South Tyrol.

Results, 19th Three Municipalities Half Marathon:

Men : 1. Alex Stuffer (Running Friends Sarntal) 1:10:20 2. Massimo Leonardi (GS Valsugana) 1:10:22 3. Michael Burger (Rennerclub Vinschgau) 1:13:16 4. Marco Pozza (Athletic Club '96) 1:13:17 5. Peter Pfeifer (RC Vinschgau) 1:13:23 6. Volkmar Mair (SV Branzoll) 1:13:29 7. Michael Nocke (SV Branzoll) 1:13:59

Women : 1. Kathrin Hanspeter (LF Sarntal) 1:22:23 2. Mirella Bergamo (GS Valsugana) 1:23:09 3. Petra Pircher (RC Vinschgau) 1:24:28 4. Lara Bonora (GS Valsugana) 1:25:40 5. Edeltraud Thaler (Telmekom Team South Tyrol) 1:26:07 6. Angelika Eckl (South Tyrolean running club) 1:30:20 7. Licia Dall'Agnola (Atl. Insieme Verona) 1:32:46

bike : 1. Roland Ruepp 40:48 2. Giordano Tomasoni 40:51

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Surprise winner at the Three Municipalities Half Marathon

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