Mottram Wins in Luzern Road Race
By David Monti
(c) 2007 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved

The 30th edition of the Luzerner Stadtlauf took place tonight in Luzern, Switzerland, and Australian Craig Mottram and Hungarian Anikó Kálovics took the top honors.

Mottram, making his first appearance at this event, finished comfortably in front in 24:53.3 over the 8710m course.  Mottram gapped his most serious challenger, Austrian Martin Pröll, all in the last kilometer.  Pröll clocked 25:02.6, well ahead of Kenyan Stanley Salil who finished third (25:16.1).

Kálovics, who runs for an Italian club, defended her title in the women's elite event over a shorter course of 4250m.  She completely dominated the race, breaking the tape in 13:03.9, some 22 seconds over runner-up Caroline Chepkwony of Kenya (13:25.4).  Australian Victoria Mitchell finished third in 13:26.9, just behind Chepkowny.

The elite events capped an evening of races at varying distances for both children and adults.  The elites ran on an 890m criterium course, with the women running about five laps and the men 10.

Mottram's next race will be the Healthy Kidney 10-K in New York City on May 19 where he will face American Dathan Ritzehein.