Mountain specialists France’s Frédéric Tranchand and Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson won the men’s and women’s short trail races at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships on Friday (26).
Day 2 of the biennial championships, taking place in Canfranc Pirineos in Spain’s Pyrenees saw athletes tackle 45k of rugged terrain of steep ascents and descents through the mountainous landscape.
It was a course that suited Tranchard and Alexandersson, both long established as world-class in orienteering.
Tranchard holds off Manual
Tranchard led from the start ahead of Spain’s Manuel Merillas, a former European Skyrunning champion. The Frenchman was well within Merillas’ sights at the Larrac checkpoint, the highest midway peak 21.9km into the race, just 49 seconds adrift.
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But by the next major climb at Motriz Tuca, Tranchard had extended his lead to a decisive 2:24 with little over 10km to run. Merillas settled in for silver with the chasing pack more than five minutes behind.
Tranchard ran strong to the finish to take gold in 4:42.10, adding a welcome addition to his collection of nine medals of silver and bronze from multiple world and European orienteering championships.
Marillas was second in 4:45:33. His Spanish teammate Andreu Blanes ran largely isolated throughout the race, but was rewarded with bronze in 4:51.52.
Alexandersson dominates women's race
In the women’s race, Alexandersson was utterly dominant.
A multiple world champion in orienteering, skyrunning, ski mountaineering and skysnow running, she won silver at this event in the Up and Down mountain race in Innsbruck two year ago. But this was her first major international victory in trail running.
But she made a dash for gold right from the gun, opening up a three-minute gap within the first 6.6km climb. She poured on the pace and by halfway was a monstrous 20 minutes up on the field. She ran relentlessly to the finish, clocking 5:04.20.
There was a half hour for the next medallists, proving the Swede’s dominance. There had been a great between Spain’s Sara Alonso and Great Britain’s Naomi Long. The duo had been separated by 16 seconds in the British runners favour at the Motriz Tuca checkpoint at 34.8km.
But on the final climb to Estiviellas, Alonso stole a 46 second advantage and maintained the gap through to the finish, taking silver in 5:38.15 with Lang 39 seconds back for bronze. Spain took both men’s and women’s team titles.