F20-34: Jazmine Lowther Closes Strong to Claim the Title

• Lowther wins in 23:25:07 at a 12:60/mi avg — posting the 2nd-fastest women's split on the Courmayeur Sport Center Sortie→Refuge Bertone stretch to seal the result.
• Lucy Bartholomew (2nd, 23:47:41) owned the fastest women's split on Saint-Gervais→Les Contamines Montjoie; Antonina Iushina (3rd, 23:53:10) took the fastest women's split on Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme→Les Chapieux.
• The podium was separated by just 28 minutes and 3 seconds across nearly 23½ hours of racing through France, Italy, and Switzerland.
• Madison Liechty (19th, 30:02:03) and Madison Hart (20th, 30:02:04) finished one second apart — the narrowest gap anywhere in the F20-34 field.

Jazmine Lowther did not have a clean wire-to-wire march to the title. Tracking 5th among women at the opening checkpoint, she slipped back to 14th by the second mark — a long middle stretch where the race was very much in the balance. But Lowther is a closer. She hauled herself back to 8th, then 7th, then 5th by the final gender checkpoint, and her 2nd-fastest women's split through the Courmayeur Sport Center Sortie→Refuge Bertone segment told the story of a runner who found another gear when it mattered most. She crossed in 23:25:07 to take the F20-34 title across 56 finishers.

Lucy Bartholomew ran a steadier, more front-loaded race — sitting 4th among women early, slipping to 6th through the middle, and ultimately finishing 2nd in 23:47:41. Her fastest women's split on the Saint-Gervais→Les Contamines Montjoie leg showed genuine early-race pop. Antonina Iushina delivered the most dramatic arc of the podium: sitting 33rd among women at the first checkpoint, she carved through the field relentlessly, reaching 7th by the fourth checkpoint and holding 8th at the line in 23:53:10. Her fastest women's split on the Refuge de la Croix du Bonhomme→Les Chapieux segment was the engine of that surge.

Riley Brady rounded out the top four in 25:20:06, posting the 2nd-fastest women's split on Refuge Bonatti→Arnouvaz — a standout segment effort that helped her climb from 22nd among women at the midpoint to 13th at the finish. Oana Marina (5th, 25:56:08) and Emilie Mann (6th, 25:58:41) finished within two and a half minutes of each other, while at the back of the listed field, Liechty and Hart produced the race's tightest finish — one second apart after more than 30 hours on the course.