A mere three days after taking the bronze in the vertical uphill race at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, Grayson Murphy won the mountain blassic event in 1:04:29, finishing nearly a minute ahead of Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson, a 17-time World Championships gold medalist in orienteering.
Murphy, who won her first world title in 2019 in her debut at the event, was unable to compete last year due to injury, but she came back a stronger and more experienced competitor. Even on the heels of the vertical uphill challenge, the 27-year-old Utah native took the lead as Saturday’s 13K race took off into the mountain trails above Innsbruck, Austria.
It was a head-to-head battle against Alexandersson through the early stages of the race; Murphy’s seven-second lead around 3.7K was temporarily ceded to the Swedish runner around the halfway point when she maneuvered around Murphy on a downhill section and gained a 12-second lead.
Alexandersson told World Athletics that she hit the wall on the course’s last loop. “I wasn’t used to the uphill and I had so much lactate, my legs were completely destroyed and I wanted to stop,” she said. “I felt ill, I wanted to throw up, I wanted to lie down and die, but I had to continue.”
Proven in the vertical uphill competition—though she does not consider herself an uphill specialist—Murphy is a skilled runner on the ascent, and after climbing back into the woods on the second loop, she gained a 50-second advantage around the 10.5K mark.
“My plan was to go out in the front pack and really push it,” Murphy said to World Athletics. “There were a lot of strong women in the race. I’ve done a good amount of road running and track running so I knew once I got to the flat parts, I’d have a chance.”
After her victory, Murphy posted on Instagram: “I have trained hard and dreamt many times of repeating as the World Champion and yesterday I got to shoot my shot … Being able to completely empty the tank on the global stage while representing Team USA is nothing short of an honor and something I will treasure for the rest of my life.”
Behind Murphy, Team USA’s Allie McLaughlin took 25th place (1:12:36) in the mountain classic. And in the 40K short trail event riddled with punchy climbs, Jennifer Lichter—who only started trail running in 2021—placed fourth, finishing in 5:11:55, with teammate EmKay Sullivan (Myers) rounding out the top ten with a 5:19:43 ninth place finish. On the men’s side, Joseph Gray took fourth in the vertical uphill race in 42:32, and in the 80K long trail event, Drew Holman was fifth in 10:15:40.
Abby Carney is a writer and journalist in New York. A former D1 college runner and current amateur track athlete, she's written about culture and characters in running and outdoor sports for Runner's World, Like the Wind Magazine, The New York Times, and other outlets. She also writes about things that have nothing to do with running, and was previously the editor of a food magazine.
