Italian runner wins race to highest peak in northeast US

PINKHAM NOTCH, N.H. – A 24-year-old Italian man has become the first European to win an annual race up the highest peak in the northeastern United States.

Cesare Maestri, of Borgo Lares, pulled away from three-time winner Eric Blake on Saturday at the halfway point of the 7.6 mile (12 kilometre) race to the 6,288-foot (1917-meter) summit of Mount Washington. He finished with a time of 1 hour, 53 seconds. Blake, of West Hartford, Connecticut, finished second in 1:01:53.

In the women’s race, Kim Dobson of Eagle, Colorado, won the grueling race for the fifth time in as many attempts. Her time of 1:11:43 was the fastest among the women and seventh fastest overall. Heidi Caldwell of Craftsbury Common, Vermont, finished second.