The 9th European Mountain Running Championships took place Sunday, hosted by Bulgarian town of Sapareva Banya in the south-western Bulgarian Rila mountains.

The women's contest was won by France's Marie Laure Dumergues, followed by Valentina Belotti from Italy and Elena Nagovitsyna from Russia. The winner in the men's contest was Ahmet Arslan from Turkey, followed by Italians Martin Dematteis and Marco De Gasperi.

The championships also included a juniors race, won by Romanian Denisa Ionela Dragomir (women) and Turk Huseyin Pak (men).

Bulgaria made a good showing, with Milka Mihaylova finishing seventh in the women's contest and the female team ranked fourth, after Italy, France and Russia.

Bulgarian minister of the interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov, who has a background as a track and field coach, was present at the event, but chose not to comment on political topics.

The 9th European Mountain Running Championships is organized by the World Mountain Running Association, the official governing body of the sport.

Mountain running, also known as fell running and hill running, is a sport resembling cross country running, though it involves an important element of uphill climbing, as well as longer and unmarked routes.

The Sapareva Banya course was 12.2 km long and involved a 685 m climb for men, and 9 km long with a 495 m climb for women.

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