Brit triumphs at Innsbruck-Stubai and leads her squad to under-20 women’s gold medals too

After taking silver behind fellow Brit Jess Bailey at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships last year in Chiang Mai, Rebecca Flaherty graduated to the top of the podium in Innsbruck on Saturday (June 10).

Flaherty took the junior title in the “mountain classic” up-and-downhill race on the final day of the championships and the 17-year-old led Britain to team gold too as Amelie Lane finished fourth, Lauren Russell fifth and Eve Whitaker eighth.

Flaherty build a big lead in the early and uphill parts of the race but she faced a nerve-wracking period descending back to the finish in Innsbruck as Ines Herault of Spain and Lucia Arnoldo of Italy began to close on her.

Aware of her chasers and glancing behind in the final kilometre, Flaherty saw her lead cut to just five seconds at one point but she found enough energy to maintain her advantage and had enough composure to grab a Union flag to celebrate in the final metres, clocking 33:20 as Herault finished seven seconds behind and Arnoldo a further 15 seconds back.

Flaherty, who goes to the same Bradford Grammar School that Alistair and Jonny Brownlee, Richard Nerurkar and Emile Cairess went to, said: “This is unreal. I can’t believe it. It’s a beautiful course here. I always try to push uphill to build a lead but I was trying to take in the views at the same time!

“Then coming into the trail through the town with all the energy was incredible. Mountain running is not a huge sport but there were hundreds of people clapping and cheering. I’ve never experienced anything like it.”

If Britain dominated the under-20 women’s race, the men’s equivalent saw Uganda in control as they took the first two places.

James Kirwa took gold from team-mate Hosea Chemutai as Matthieu Bührer from Switzerland earned the bronze.

Bührer built an eight-second lead at one point on the downhill to the finish, too, but was overhauled by the Ugandan duo in the latter stages as Kirwa clocked 27:37 from Chemutai’s 27:43 and Bührer’s 27:52.

Bührer led Switzerland to team gold, however, as France won silver and Spain took bronze.

First Brit home was William Longden in 23rd in 30:46, Ewan Busfield was 28th and Alexander Poulston 31st and Thomas Perry 43rd.