Lauren Gregory Runs Down Naomi Lang in the Last Kilometer of the OCC at UTMB

More than 59 kilometers into Thursday’s OCC, and with less than 800 meters left to run, Nike athlete Lauren Gregory overtook Salomon’s Naomi Lang, in a stunning sprint finish at one of UTMB’s three marquee events in the Alps.

The pass came at 6:05:30 on the race clock, after the final scaffolding aluminum road bridge, just before the final right-hand turn into the finishing straight in Chamonix. The moment made instant history as the closest win ever in Chamonix.

Lang, who’d led most of the race, chased for roughly 100 seconds after the big move, but never recovered the few meters Gregory created. They crossed in 6:08:07 and 6:08:10 respectively, three seconds apart, and both women collapsed just after the line, smiling, as they embraced in a show of camaraderie and the sheer exhaustion of sprinting to arguably the most dramatic finish in UTMB history.

Gregory, an American, had never raced the distance before Thursday. Lang, a Scot, won bronze at last year’s short-trail world championships. The OCC, a course of just over 60 kilometers (about 38 miles) from Orsières to Chamonix, serves as one of the championship finals of UTMB week, the largest annual event in trail running.

“This has never, ever been seen in a UTMB final. This is new territory,” the commentators said on the UTMB live stream as the two sprinted through the narrow, spectator-lined streets in the village center.

Finishes at ultras tend to come down to minutes and not seconds, triggering a frenzied response in Chamonix, and online, with many referring to it as an instant classic and perhaps the greatest finish in ultrarunning history. The closest before Thursday came just last August, when Martyna Młynarczyk beat Sylvia Nordskar by 18 seconds at the CCC, the week’s 100-kilometer middle-distance final.

Spainard and Asics athlete Sara Alonso finished third in 6:09:11, which put the top three within a minute and four seconds of each other. She’s sat in second place for much of the race, before being overtaken by Gregory in herself in the final few kilometers. For much of the day Lang looked to be in total control. She led from the first major climb and spent the morning at the front with Alonso and Judith Wyder tracking her. Wyder faded mid-race, finishing sixth.

Gregory moved up carefully and out of view of the live stream, while Lang held her position through a mid-race fall. The decisive stretch came at kilometer 55.5: the difficult climb of roughly a kilometer that pitches to a 6 percent grade. Lang was forced to power walk sections, while Alonso, who maintained second place and seemed destined to win the OCC at this stage, ran the climb and began closing fast on the Scot. Coming into the final aid station, at 5:15 of elapsed time, the top three were separated by just two minutes.

Gregory did not appear on the broadcast until the five hours, fifty-five minute mark, passing Alonso at 5:56:20. By the 57th kilometer, Gregory opened a gap on the Spaniard on the downhill singletrack which exits the mountain into the outskirts of Chamonix, with Lang in sight by the time the town was in view in the distance. Content creators ran beside the sprinting leaders through the tight Chamonix streets, carrying camera rigs on gimbals and phones on selfie sticks, which made for a chaotic finish, as fans crowd the streets much like in the Tour de France.

Conditions shaped the day as much as the course and elevation, with the heat cresting to 88 F (31 C) under full sun. Hydration and fueling were clearly a major factor in the outcome, along with Gregory’s superb downhill and flatland running late in the race.

In June, she came in second at the Broken Arrow 23K in 2:03:56, moving up late to finish three seconds ahead of Joyce Muthoni Njeru. Gregory raced in the ACG Ultrafly and the ACG Radical AirFlow, which shirt Caleb Olson wore to win Western States in 2025, making this another statement win for the Swoosh as it aggressively re-enters the trail running scene.

Frédéric Tranchand won the men’s race in 5:10:08, marking the first French victory in the OCC since Xavier Thévenard in 2016. The reigning short-trail world champ took the lead near kilometer 7.3 and held on for the rest of the way. He’d built a five-minute lead at Trient (kilometer 24), and was eight minutes clear of second place by the time he’d reached Col de Balme at the halfway mark, staying alone in front for a total of 54 kilometers.

Nashon Kiplimo, an emerging Kenyan athlete sponsored by Salomon, closed hard on the last climb to take second, finishing 4:29 back, while the Spanish Asics athlete Miguel Benítez was third.

“The OCC was my main goal of the year, and I built my season around being in the best possible shape,” Tranchand said after the win in a statement released by his sponsor, Merrell. “I found myself alone quite early on and the final part was really challenging, but I played to my strengths, particularly on the steepest climbs.”

Tranchand has been based in Chamonix since the beginning of May, preparing obsessively to the point that he felt he knew “every rock” on the course. Tranchand came to trail running from the adjacent sport of orienteering, where he won seven world championship medals, and a European orienteering title earlier this year. “Winning here in Chamonix, at the biggest global gathering of trail running, is an incredible feeling,” Tranchand said after the race. “It was a unique moment that I had never experienced before.”

Rémi Bonnet, a pre-race favorite, led the opening kilometers into Champex-Lac before fading and ultimately dropping out, his second consecutive OCC DNF after leading much of the 2024 race. Francesco Puppi, last year’s CCC winner, finished seventh.

Both fields raced a revised course this year, with a new passage from Col de Balme to Col des Posettes. The event featured a high point of 2,321 meters, and a new final descent section into Chamonix. UTMB brands the race as its 50K championship race, despite the course measuring more than 60 kilometers.

Women’s Top 10

1. Lauren Gregory (USA) 6:08:07
2. Naomi Lang (GBR) 6:08:10
3. Sara Alonso (ESP) 6:09:11
4. Makena Morley (USA) 6:16:37
5. Ida Amelie Robsahm (NOR) 6:27:34
6. Judith Wyder (SUI) 6:28:44
7. Hau Ha Thi (VIE) 6:34:18
8. Greta García Morán (ESP) 6:34:43
9. Bailey Kowalczyk (USA) 6:36:18
10. Daniela Oemus (GER) 6:40:18

Men’s Top 10

1. Frédéric Tranchand (FRA) 5:10:08
2. Nashon Kiplimo (KEN) 5:14:37
3. Miguel Benítez (ESP) 5:17:43
4. Sylvain Cachard (FRA) 5:21:35
5. Alain Santamaria Blanco (ESP) 5:28:24
6. Anton Gustafsson (SWE) 5:28:27
7. Francesco Puppi (ITA) 5:29:15
8. Robbie Simpson (GBR) 5:29:55
9. Dawid Malina (POL) 5:29:58
10. Leonard Mitrica (ROU) 5:30:31