Italy take the men's uphill team title at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships

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European runners took a plethora of medals on the opening day of the inaugural World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Chiang Mai, Thailand on Friday (4), topped with Italy taking the men’s team gold in the classic uphill race.

Cesare Maestri followed up his individual victory at the European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships in July by leading the Italian scoring trio home in seventh place, with his compatriot Xavier Chevrier one place further back.

With Andrea Rostan finishing 17th, the Italian total of 32 points was enough to edge out Switzerland by two points and take their place at the top of the podium, with Spain a further three points back, taking the bronze with 37 points.

The latter were led home by Alex Garcia, who was a surprise bronze medallist and the leading European runner in the men’s individual race.

Garcia opted for a conservative strategy over the opening kilometres of the tough 8.5km race which included 1014 metres of elevation gain, leaving the two Kenyan runners Patrick Kipngeno and Philemon Kiriago, the eventual gold and silver medallists respectively in 46:51 and 48:24, to run their own race.

However, in the second half of the race, the unheralded Garcia started to haul in the men in front of him and with just over two kilometres to go, he overtook Switzerland’s Joey Hadorn and Ireland’s Zak Hanna to clinch the battle for the bronze medal.

Garcia crossed the line in 49:03 with Hadorn six seconds behind and Hanna fifth in 49:32.

Alex Garcia Uphill 1

In the women’s race, the familiar names of Austria’s three-time European gold medallist Andrea Mayr and Switzerland’s reigning continental champion Maude Mathys took second and third place behind the American winner Allie McLaughlin, reversing the order from the European championships four months ago when Mathys took the title in front of Mayr.

McLaughlin headed the race from the early stages before finishing in 55:15 with Mayr winning the dual for the silver medal and coming home 55:41, with Mathys six seconds behind.

Despite not getting a runner in the top 10, Great Britain packed solidly to take the women’s team silver medal behind the USA, with 2022 European up-and-down bronze medallist Scout Adkin, Ruth Jones and Holly Page finishing in 11th, 14th and 16th place to tally 41 points, with Switzerland having the same score but taking the bronze on the tie-break rules of which country had the better third scorer.

Page was the hero of the British team as she overtook runners in front of her in the final straight to take her team past the Swiss.

Full results are available here.




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