Six long-distance runners recently represented Malta at the European Mountain Running Championships, held in Borovets, Bulgaria.

The team was accompanied by chef-de-mission Gerald Grech, chairman of the Malta Mountain Running Sub-Committee, and coach Ivan Rozhnov.

The Maltese runners produced an encouraging performance in these championships, beating competitors from 10 other nations out of a total of 26, including Bulgaria, Poland, Greece, Belgium, Ukraine and Hungary .

In the men’s race, the runners had to cover up a gruelling ascent of 1,152m – from 1,333m to 2,465m – as well as go down a steep descent of 151m covering a total distance of 11.8kms.

Andrew Grech, recently crowned national mountain run-ning champion and first Maltese runner home in this year’s Land Rover Marathon, was first in for the Malta Team.

Joseph Saliba, first Maltese in the 2013 Malta Half Marathon, and veteran Charles Cilia followed in second and third to complete Malta’s first ever team performance in an international mountain running championship event.

In the women’s race, participants had to run up a continuous ascent of 1,027m (average 11.6% incline) for a total distance of 8.8kms.

Giselle Camilleri, who has recently won some important mountain running international races in France as well as two bronze medals in the Luxembourg GSSE, was first in for the Malta Team.

Angele Sammut, current Malta Mountain Running champion and winner of this year’s Malta Half Marathon was second, while Carmen Hili, seven-times Malta Marathon winner, was third.

For most of the members of Team Malta, this was their first tilt at a mountain running event except for Cilia and Camilleri who competed in the 2012 championships in Ponte di Legno, Italy.

Mountain running is an established endurance running discipline and a branch of traditional athletics since 1984, also recognised by the IAAF and the European Athletic Association (EAA).

Thanks also to the strong support of the Malta Amateur Athletics Association president Anthony Chircop and secretary Edwin Attard, the mountain running discipline is slowly but surely gaining popularity among local distance runners.