US runner Grayson Murphy secures the title in the Mountain Classic over 15 kilometers in the last race of the 2nd World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Innsbruck-Stubai. Second place goes to Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson with a deficit of 57 and ahead of Kenya's Joyce Muthoni (+2:11 minutes). The only Austrian participant, Bernadette Schuster, finished in 59th, with a deficit of 14:36 minutes.
The women’s Mountain Classic, a race with alternating uphill and downhill sections in and around Innsbruck, was the last competition of the World Championships in Innsbruck-Stubai, which provided high-level racing and suspense as well as impressive images and great emotions on an ongoing basis. As was the case during pretty much all of the WMTRC women’s races, one athlete was leading the field for quite some time before she had to give in to a pursuer. This time it was Tove Alexandersson from Sweden, who was still clearly in the lead after the first 7.5 kilometer lap. On the steep climb from the old town towards the Ölberg, however, Alexandersson caved in, enabling Grayson Murphy from the USA to pull away and secure the victory seemingly effortlessly.
It didn’t stop Alexandersson from throwing everything in the balance, finishing in second place and falling to the ground a mere two steps after crossing the finish line – she had completely exhausted herself, but was soon back on her feet after a short stay in the medical tent. Annet Chelangat from Uganda seemed to be on the way to Bronze for a long time, but she started to falter and finally finished in 11th place.
Joyce Muthoni from Kenya took Bronze, 2:11 minutes behind winner Murphy, and ahead of her compatriot Valentine Rutto and a strong Domenika Mayer from Germany.
