Record-holding World Champion Andrea Mayr from Austria has once again demonstrated her mastery; at the WMTRC in her native country, she won her seventh Gold medal, and the event’s first one for the host country. Mayr prevailed against Philaries Jeruto Kisang from Kenya and Grayson Murphy from the US. As with the men, Kenya won the team classification, ahead of Germany and Great Britain.
Just like their male counterparts, the leading women started with a fast pace on the tar section right after the start of the Vertical. The runners from Kenya and Uganda were the first to pass the bottleneck in the lower part, from where the route led into the forest where the American defending champion Allie McLaughlin took the lead with an intermediate sprint. Andrea Mayr was still further back at this point, completing the first climb in eighth or ninth place. After the short flat section, the 43-year-old physician played to her strengths and took the lead. At the split time at the Autenalm (km 3.9), Mayr was already 33 seconds ahead. On the flat section that followed, Philaries Jeruto Kisang really pushed the pace and was able to catch up with Mayr, going into the final steep section as the leader.
The final 800 meters were dominated by nail-biting action. Even though Kisang was able to increase the gap initially, Mayr managed to close up the steeper it got, passing her competitor about halfway up the climb and winning her seventh World Championship title. While Mayr was able to run to the finish, Kisang had to walk the last remaining meters. Grayson Murphy crossed the finish line just over a minute after Mayr, while defending champion Allie McLaughlin had to pay the price for her sprint early on in the race, and finish in 13th place.
