The Spaniard won his ninth edition of the race as he crossed the line with a blistering time of 2hrs 31mins 44secs while Mathys won the simultaneous women's race shortly after in her home country, with a time of 2:46:03.

The women's race started 15 minutes earlier than the men's but the camera operators lost track of the athletes until the first timing point at Ponchette which marked the 7.5 kilometre mark.

It was no surprise to see Mathys emerge first while the Netherlands' Nienke Brinkman carried her form from her win at the Zermatt Marathon.

Anais Sabrie of France was next to reach Ponchette, making up the early leaders for the women's race.

In the early stages of the men’s race Jornet was biding his time, sitting in behind Remi Bonnet of Switzerland and Eritrean Petro Mamu on the first climb.

By the time they reached Ponchette Mamu, Kilian and Bonnet had tired and were all together which continued until the 12km mark at Chandolin.

At this point Jornet decided that he was going to have to put some distance between himself and Mamu, so he flew through the downhill section.

Meanwhile, in the women’s race Mathys maintained a small lead at Chandolin, while Brinkman continued to chase and maintain a gap of four minutes on third-placed Sabrie.

Behind Sabrie, compatriot Blandine L’Hirondel was about a minute behind.

By the next timing point in Barneuza, at 26km, Jornet was still in the lead and he now had a 90 second lead on second-placed Lolkurraru.

Meanwhile in the women's race, Mathys had carefully navigated the descent and finished the race with her third straight victory at Sierre-Zinal.

Shortly after, Jornet rounded the corner to claim his ninth triumph on the Swiss course.

Brinkman and Sabie held on to claim second and third, respectively, in the women's race while American Robbie Simpson and Cesare Maestri of Italy rounded out the men's podium.