Isaac Kosgei on his way to winning the 2014 Gorski tek na Grintovec mountain race (© WMRA / organisers)
Kenya's Issac Kosgei and local star Mateja Kosovelj came out on top at the testing 16th edition of the Gorski tek na Grintovec mountain race in Slovenia, the third of this summer's WMRA World Cup races, on Sunday (27).
In difficult weather conditions, with a thunderstorm the day before having made the steep 10km circuit wet and slippery, Kosegei excelled and finished in 1:19:30, the second fastest time ever.
Slovenia's Nejc Kuhar finished 38 seconds behind the Kenyan to finish as the runner up for the second consecutive year.
Kosovelj was a much more dominating figure in the women’s race, winning in 1:32:38 and coming home more than 10 minutes in front of Jana Bratina, also from Slovenia, who was second in 1:43.21.
There were 223 runners from 10 countries in the two elite races, staged in the in a beautiful valley of Kamniska Bistrica, just 25km north from the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.
The fourth race in the World Cup will be the 6th Asitzgipfel mountain run in Leogang, Austria, on 31.August.
Tomo Sarf for the IAAF