{"id":12621,"date":"2020-08-02T19:59:45","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T18:59:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nirunning.voodooltd.co.uk\/?p=12621"},"modified":"2020-08-02T19:59:45","modified_gmt":"2020-08-02T18:59:45","slug":"newcastle-ac-zak-hanna-italy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nirunning.co.uk\/newcastle-ac-zak-hanna-italy\/","title":{"rendered":"Newcastle & District AC\u2019s & Salomon athlete Zak Hanna flies in Italy"},"content":{"rendered":"
Race Report by Bogboy<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
Racing opportunities have been scarce since lockdown in March and only in recent weeks have opportunities emerged. Indeed a couple of weeks ago Newcastle & District AC\u2019s Zak Hanna journeyed to County Wicklow to race in Ireland\u2019s first mountain race post-lockdown over Lugnaquilla. His winning time of 49 minutes and 35 seconds was only 4 seconds outside legendary John Linehan\u2019s course record and he was over 8 minutes ahead of second place. A week later he covered a time-trial lap of the lake at Castlewellan in 11 minutes and 49 seconds for the 2.425miles distance (4 minutes and 56 seconds mile pace), which indicated he was ready to take on the best in the mountain racing world.<\/p>\n
So it was with reasonable confidence that the Salomon sponsored athlete set out for a weekend of racing based in the village of Malonno in northern Italy some 100 miles northeast of Milano. Northern Italy was at the centre of the pandemic in February but things have improved dramatically there and Zak was able to report back that the locals were continuing to take social distancing seriously and wearing masks. The races themselves started with athletes one metre apart on the start grid and having to wear a \u2018buff mask\u2019 for the first 200 metres until the field thinned out sufficiently. He was the only person from Ireland or Britain to make the trip and the organisers were so delighted to see him.<\/p>\n
Hanna in the cutaway Salomon vest bent nearly double halfway up the \u2018Vertical Kilometre\u2019<\/p><\/div>\n
Piz Tri Vertical Kilometre<\/strong><\/p>\n
Most of Europe was basking in a heatwave (not in Ireland though) and race morning arrived with temperatures already at 30C at the 9:30 race time. The race statistics were scary with 1,000 metres of climbing to be covered in only 3.5km race distance. The \u2018wall\u2019 to the finish line had a maximum gradient of an eye-watering 47%.<\/p>\n
The finishing \u2018wall\u2019 with Hanna passing Frenchman Sylvain Cachard to make it a podium finish; the race had started over 3,000 feet in the valley in the background.<\/p><\/div>\n
In the early stages Zak found himself in the leading group of 5 with the cream of the Italian mountain racing scene. It included the \u2018vertical kilometre\u2019 specialist Henry Aymonod, one of the best uphill and sky runners in the world at the moment Davide Magnini, former European Mountain Racing Champion Martin Dematteis and Frenchman Sylvain Cachard. At around half distance Aymonod put in a surge and Hanna tried to follow with Dematteis being dropped from the group. Onto the upper slopes Hanna was at the back of the group of 3 in 4th<\/sup> place. Then with less than 100m nearly vertical metres to go, he surged past Cachard to move into 3rd<\/sup> place and crossed the line in 35:14 \u2013 winner Aymonod was home in 34:10 with Magnini second in 35:01, with Cachard in 4th<\/sup> in 35:21.<\/p>\n
A glorious 3rd place finish for Salomon athlete Hanna.<\/p><\/div>\n
Fletta Trail \u2013 20km with 1,200m of climb & descent<\/strong><\/p>\n