Mountain running: Moon over the moon

Melissa Moon sent a warning to her world mountain running rivals with a grinding victory in the Mt Washington race in the US yesterday.

The Wellington runner went shoulder to shoulder from start to finish with four-time race winner Anna Pichrtova, of the Czech Republic, before kicking clear at the final staircase 300m from the finish.

Moon's winning margin in the 12km event was 15 seconds and she returns to Wellington on Tuesday as the firm favourite for the world mountain running championships on September 25.