Sullivan Middaugh wins World Championship Xterra Shorttrack after thrilling sprint, Solenne Billouin wins women’s race

In a wet, cold and windy Italy, Sullivan Middaugh and Solenne Billouin just won the World Championship Xterra Shorttrack. Especially in the men’s race, it was very exciting and a final sprint between three athletes was needed to force the decision.

Already early in the race a leading group formed on the bike, but during the run, only Middaugh, Felix Forissier and Arthur Serrieres remained together. Until the final meters, they kept running side by side at a high pace to finally pull off a sprint to finish. Middaugh won the race in 32:51 and Forissier and Serrieres finished second and third, respectively, in the same time.

The race involved only 400 meters of swimming, 8 kilometers of mountain biking and 3 kilometers of running, and for the women, the decision fell earlier in the race. At the start of the run, only Aneta Grabmuller and Solenne Billouin were running close together, but soon the Frenchwoman proved to be by far the strongest athlete. She won the race in 36:46 and was followed by Grabmuller at 16 seconds. Loanne Duvoisin finished third, 52 seconds behind.