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Joyce Njeru wins Golden Trail World Series

Joyce Njeru has won the Golden Trail World Series. The Kenyan trail runner finished third in the final race in Ascona-Locarno, despite twisting her ankle. That third place was more than enough for her to secure her overall victory. Joyline Chepngeno (Kenya) won the final race by a landslide.

Up front all eyes were on Njeru and Madalina Florea. Joyce couldn’t allow Florea to be more than three places in front of her. If she could stay close to the colourful Romanian athlete, she would be safe. Yet, Njeru didn’t take any risk and went out hard from the start, together with Chepngeno.

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Her compatriot was no threat to her for the overall victory, as the winner of Sierre-Zinal wasn’t granted a visa for the two races in the United States and because of that missed the required number of races to compete for the overall win.

Florea trailing

In no time the two African athletes left the rest of the field behind them. Racing over the technical trails as if they were running on the dirt roads back home. Florea, who won last year’s final, followed a couple of metres behind, in the company of Sophia Laukli, last year’s overall winner. This year the American Salomon runner didn’t play as big a role, due to injuries.

After the first big climb, more than 45 minutes into the race, Chepngeno was leading, Njeru followed a couple of seconds behind her. Florea came over the top in third place, one minute twenty behind her Kenyan rival. As Njeru blew up in the past, it still looked good for the Romanian trail runner, who was closely followed by Laukli and a group with Judith Wyder, Lauren Gregory, Sophia Laukli, Sara Alonso and Oria Liaci.

Fate struck

On the descent Njeru overtook Chepngeno, but then fate struck. The Atletica Saluzzo runner twisted her ankle, screamed and hobbled for a moment. With a pained face she continued her way, but quickly lost ground to Chepngeno.

It should have been the moment for Florea to step up. Yet, the Romanian Salomon runner hit the wall and saw all her competitors passing. Exhausted, she reached the finish line in forty-third place: “It’s hard for me to find the words for what just happened. Without a doubt, this has been one of my hardest days so far”, she wrote on her Instagram.

A bike for Chepngeno

Joyce Njeru has won the Golden Trail World Series. The Kenyan runner finished 3th in the final in Switzerland. Chepngeno won the race.That all happened behind the back of Chepngeno, who kept running strong and finished in 2 hours, 8 minutes and 40 seconds. “I wasn’t expecting to win this race because I’ve been suffering from a knee problem for several weeks, but I managed to get back into shape for the final. I’m thrilled because I showed what I could do at Sierre-Zinal but I haven’t been able to prove it again until now by winning the final. I really hope I can do the whole Series next year!” Who will be thrilled as well, is her son. “I promised him that if I would win, I would buy him a bike.”

With Florea falling back, Njeru could focus on finishing the race, which was hard enough with a very tough and technical final section. So tough that Lauren Gregory was able to overtake her, with the finish in sight. “I had a blast on this race course, especially on the technical parts”, the American Nike Trail runner said directly after the finish. “I love this type of downhill and I managed to catch Joyce in the final loop to go neck and neck for second place. I’m definitely coming back to the Golden Trail Series next year, so I’ll be choosing my races carefully to go for the more technical ones, even if I’ve already ticked Sierre-Zinal 2025 on my calendar.”

Over the moon

Njeru couldn’t be bothered losing second. For her the third place meant the overall win and she took her time high fiving everybody in her last metres to the finish: “I’m so happy to have won the Series. It’s a huge achievement in my career but also for my personal growth. I’m not disappointed that I didn’t win the final, everything was going fine, but I twisted my ankle halfway through the race and it became very complicated. But it doesn’t matter today, I’m just over the moon!”

At the start of the race Judith Wyder (Swiss) and Malen Osa (Spain) knew that a good result would hand them third place. Wyder started hard and was close on the heels of Florea in the first couple of kilometres. Osa held back, hoping to finish strong. Yet, because of Florea hitting the wall, suddenly both runners were racing for the second spot on the podium. Wyder won that battle, Osa took third overall. Florea dropped to sixth.

Photos: Colin Olivero and Justin Galant/Rising Story

 

You can find the results of the final race here and the overall ranking of the Golden Trail World Series here.

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