Bristol Business News Travel Editor Anne Gorringe has won a prestigious award for the best on-line travel article of the year at a ceremony organised by the Italian State Tourist Board.
Anne picked up her trophy at a glittering ceremony in London last night, placing her alongside winning journalists from titles such as The Times, The Telegraph, The Mail on Sunday and Italia magazine.
Anne won the award for writing about an ultra-extreme 330k run which takes place over six days each September from the Italian resort of Cormayeur.
Bristol-based Anne, who previously worked for the Western Daily Press, writes for a number of websites and, while she wrote a travel piece about the race for Bristol Business News, judges picked her news story of the event, written for ski website PlanetSKI, when nominating Anne for the award.
Anne walked the last 30k of the trail to get a very quick ‘taste’ of the task the runners faced. This involved hiking up, and over, the Malatrà Pass (to a height of 2,928 m), spending the night at a mountain hut and then coming back into Cormayeur to see the runners set off.
A delighted Anne said this morning: “I’m really thrilled to win the award. I know I was up against some very tough competition.
“I’m so glad I did the trip. I’ll never forget scrambling over shale to reach the top of the pass – the view of Mont Blanc was simply stunning!
“A week before I went to Italy I’d very nearly cancelled as I was worried that the walk was going to be too difficult. I was with a group led by a mountain guide and I knew the others on the trip were much more experienced than me – one was a fell-runner and sky-diver! I ski, but the longest run I’ve ever done is a breathless 10k!
“One of the most surprising things was meeting the runners – I’d expected anyone who wanted to run and extreme 330k in the Italian Alps had to be mad. But they were all really nice people – and seemed quite normal!
“It didn’t tempt me, though. I think I’ll stick to skiing.”
Alessandra Smith, one of the judges whose tough job was to pick the winners, said: “It’s been extremely difficult to choose the runners-up and winners from about 100 articles and entries. The quality, scope and interest are breathtaking.”
She added that even though the euro is in crisis, “people still love to be inspired by travel – and travel writing”.
“Thanking journalists at last night’s glittering event, she added: “Our awards are a celebration of travel and travel writing.
- To read Anne’s Bristol Business News article about the race, go to www.bristol-business.net/?p=3172
