Switzerland’s Judith Wyder led the 52km trail race from start to finish, winning gold in the women's race at the European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships in Ljubljana-Kamnik on Saturday (6) in 4:36:41.
Wyder won by over three minutes Spain’s Maria La Chica (4:40:24) and Sweden’s Emma Eriksson (4:40:38) and the 37-year-old, who won silver in the up-and-downhill mountain race in Annecy two years ago, also led Switzerland to the team title.
The only time Wyder was not at the top of the race was on the starting grid but after the starting gun was fired, Wyder almost instantly took the lead and dictated proceedings in the 52km trail race.
In the absence of Tove Alexandersson from Sweden who had to pull out from all the races this weekend due to an ankle injury, Wyder delivered a clinical performance from the tarmac of the city roads in Kamnik to the gravel up the first climbs on to the trails in the Slovenian mountains.
The crucial moment came in the downhill from Velika Planina. All alone on the gravel road Wyder wasn’t entirely sure if she was still on the right track. "That was not a good feeling. I had the track on my watch but that didn’t show it and there were no stripes and I was stressed. Luckily I could calm down a bit later on the uphill. A lot of nice guys kept reassuring me then that I was on the right track," she said. :
It was not her strategy, though, to be all alone at the top so early in the race. "I was trying to hold myself back and be in the group, but when you are alone you try to focus on yourself and keep managing your speed. I was quite good at that today," Wyder said with a bright smile.
Behind Wyder, the positions for the silver and bronze medals changed a lot over the course of the race. First, Anna Plattner from Austria and Great Britain’s Scarlet Dale were the initial pursuers but in the end, Maria La Chica from Spain and Emma Eriksson from Sweden finished on the podium, both four minutes within the winner.
"I was suffering a lot," admitted La Chica. "In the last kilometres I thought the other girl was going to take me but I was fighting hard because I had my team behind. My parents are here. It was the heart that was taking me, not the legs."
Eriksson was equally happy with her performance. "It was amazing and I am really, really satisfied," she said. "In the last 15 kilometres I was really tired. That was the hardest part of the race."
Switzerland, who are hosting the 2028 European Trail Running Championships, not only won individual gold with Wyder but also the team race ahead of France and Spain respectively.