Tina Fischl wins gold and positions herself excellently in the World Cup
As part of the Grossglockner Mountain Run 2024 with more than 1,000 registered participants, the third World Cup race of the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) was held last weekend.
Tina Fischl, the German mountain running champion from 2015 and reigning Bavarian champion, wanted to compete with the best in the world at this event. Fischl has always performed very well here in previous years and has always finished at the front of the elite field.
With 1,300 m of elevation stretched over 13 km, the course was a tough one and is definitely one of the most challenging mountain-running races in the world.
After last year’s great weather, the starting signal was given punctually at 9 am in Heiligenblut in pouring rain. But this couldn’t stop the running enthusiasm, the athletes had the finish line on the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe in front of them and they wanted to reach it as quickly as possible.
The first 1.5 km were flat out of Heiligenblut and the pace was extremely fast. All participants had to work really hard to reach the finish line, as there were over 500 steps up to the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe at the end.
Personal trainer Tina Fischl from Fürstenstein placed 12th overall in this exceptionally strong elite field and was the superior winner in her age group. Her final time was 5 minutes faster than last year, which clearly shows that the athlete’s form curve is clearly on the rise.
Concerning the overall victory, there was a huge surprise, especially among the women: the German European champion Nina ENGELHARD was the first woman to cross the finish line. With her time of 1:22:09, she left both the reigning world champion Joyce WJERU and the current World Cup leader Philaries KISANG (both Kenya) behind her.
In the men’s race, the Kenyan Richard ATUYA won in 1:10:04 ahead of his compatriots Josphat KIPROTICH and Michael SAOLI. Atuya was thus able to win the Grossglockner race, as he also won the KING OF Heiligenblut, the elite show competition on Saturday.
Read the newspaper report here:
More information is also available at: https://grossglockner-mountainrun.at/
Photo documentation: © Foto Viertbauer