After 10 races throughout seven nations, the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup wraps up with a pair of finals on back-to-back days in Italy. Up first, the Kilometro Verticale Lagùnc ran on Saturday, October 12, the place the U.Ok.’s Scout Adkin (pre-race interview) and Italy’s Andrea Elia emerged as uphill champions.
The World Mountain Operating Championships occur each different yr. The occasion was contested final yr in Austria and can occur once more in 2025 in Spain. Absent a world championships occasion in 2024, the Mountain Operating World Cup Finals tackle higher significance this yr. The World Mountain Operating Affiliation administers each.
A real vertical kilometer (VK), the uphill race gained 1,000 meters over 3.3 kilometers in distance. With a historical past relationship again to 1986, it’s the oldest VK race on this planet. The course took runners from Chiavenna to Lagùnc, Italy, and was run in a time-trial format with runners sprinting from the beginning each 15 seconds. It was a cool morning with some rain and mist, making for tremendous situations, if slightly bit slippery on some sections of the course.
Lastly, this VK served because the 2024 Italian VK Nationwide Championships, which introduced some further competitors.
Most of the runners will double again on Sunday, October 13, to run the Val Bregaglia Path race to conclude the collection.
Due to the World Mountain Operating Affiliation for supporting iRunFar’s 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals protection.
The 2024 Kilometro Verticale Lagùnc end line, situated above the city of Chiavenna, in northern Italy. It was the primary licensed VK course, established in 1986. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals VK Girls’s Race
In all, the ladies’s subject’s begin was unfold over 46 minutes and the highest girls began behind the sphere. World cup collection chief Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya) went third to final, and was adopted from the beginning line by the U.Ok.’s Scout Adkin (pre-race interview) and Kenya’s Philaries Kisang Jeruto (pre-race interview). Adkin and Kisang, Muthoni Njeru’s chief rivals within the collection, had been ranked second and third on this planet cup earlier than the race.
Scout Adkin ran away with the win on the 2024 Kilometro Verticale Lagùnc, as a part of the Mountain Operating World Cup Finals. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Additional up within the begin order, almost half-hour earlier than Muthoni Njeru began, Paola Stampanoni (Switzerland) was significantly outrunning her begin place and handed extra girls than anybody else on her race to the highest. In September, Stampanoni was second on the Skyrunning World Championships Vertical race.
Switzerland’s Paola Stampanoni working arduous on her strategy to third place on the Mountain Operating World Cup Finals Vertical Kilometer. Picture: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
The time-trial format makes end ranks unsure to spectators on the high, however each Adkin and Jeruto Kisang ran down favourite Muthoni Njeru and hit the excessive level end comfortably forward of the collection chief.
Adkin gained the race in 37:57, forward of Jeruto Kisang’s 38:35. Adkin had a commanding 38-second lead when the end occasions flashed. It was Adkin’s third world cup win of the yr, on high of a robust second-place end at Sierre-Zinal this yr.
Philaries Jeruto Kisang works her method towards second place on the 2024 Kilometro Verticale Lagùnc within the Mountain Operating World Cup Finals. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
At all times on the rostrum, Jeruto Kisang needed to accept simply that, one other podium end. Her runner-up spot matched final yr’s silver medal on the 2023 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race.
Stamponini’s shock early-in-the-race 39:13 break up held up as third greatest.
Sequence chief and 2024 star throughout each the Mountain Operating World Cup and the Golden Path World Sequence, Muthoni Njeru was simply fifth on the day in 39:55. That was nonetheless sufficient for her to carry onto her world cup collection lead heading into the subsequent day closing race.
Kenya’s Joyce Muthoni Njeru completed fifth on the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals Vertical Kilometer, retaining the highest place on this planet cup. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The highest U.S. finisher was Eleventh-place Rachel Tomajczyk in 41:55.
2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals VK Girls’s Outcomes
- Scout Adkin (U.Ok.) – 37:57 (pre-race interview)
- Philaries Jeruto Kisang (Kenya) – 38:34 (pre-race interview)
- Paola Stampanoni (Switzerland) – 39:13
- Susanna Saapunki (Finland, lives in Italy) – 39:44
- Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Kenya) – 39:55
- Lara Hamilton (Australia, lives within the U.S.) – 40:18
- Sara Willhoit (U.Ok.) – 40:31
- Vivien Bonzi (Italy) – 41:05
- Klara Velepec (Slovenia) – 41:25
- Ilaria Veronese (Italy) – 41:53
Rachael Tomajczyk (left) and Lauren Gregory took Eleventh and twelfth on the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals Vertical Kilometer. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals VK Males’s Race
The lads had been second to problem the mountain. The primary man left the beginning line at 10:01 a.m. and one other adopted each 15 seconds clear up via 11:43 a.m. As with the ladies, the highest males went final. World cup collection chief, Kenya’s Patrick Kipngeno (pre-race interview), began fourth to final. The U.S.’s Joseph Grey (pre-race interview), as with Kipngeno, a former uphill world champion, was seventh to final, and second on this planet cup rankings, Kenya’s Philemon Kiriago (pre-race interview), was ninth to final at the beginning line. As with the ladies’s race, there was rain and mist alternately all through, making for moist terrain on the climb.
Italy’s Andrea Elia, the 2024 Kilometro Verticale Lagunc champion, which was a part of the Mountain Operating World Cup Finals. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The world cup has been dominated by Kenyan runners this yr and the nation had six runners within the subject. On the end although, it was the host nation that starred. Italy positioned 4 runners inside the highest seven.
When the race organizers laid out this begin order, one way or the other they completely nailed it.
Simply fifth finally week’s 2024 Šmarna Gora race in Slovenia, Andrea Elia (Italy) began the race second to final. Henri Aymonod (Italy), an uphill powerhouse who gained final yr’s race right here, went final from the beginning line.
Italy’s Henri Aymonod appears calm on his strategy to taking second on the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals VK. Picture: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
These two ran down Kipngeno, all the opposite Kenyan runners, Grey, and everybody else in entrance of them. Elia hit the highest after 31:08 and Aymonod was solely seven seconds behind in 31:15. Italy thus stood atop each the gold- and silver-medal podium positions.
Kipngeno, final yr’s World Mountain Operating Uphill Champion, was third in 31:50. As with Muthoni Njeru within the girls’s race, that did rating sufficient factors to nonetheless lead the general collection heading into the subsequent day, October 13, closing race.
Patrick Kipngeno of Kenya took third on the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals Vertical Kilometer, and retained his lead on this planet cup. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Christian Allen led the U.S. in ninth at 33:09, and Grey was nineteenth in 34:22.
World Cup collection #2, Kiriago, was simply twelfth within the race in 33:38.
Girls’s winner Scout Adkin’s brother, Jacob Adkin (U.Ok.), was seventeenth within the males’s race in 34:14.
Christian Allen was the highest American on the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals Vertical Kilometer. He took ninth. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals VK Males’s Outcomes
- Andrea Elia (Italy) – 31:08
- Henri Aymonod (Italy) – 31:15
- Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya) – 31:50 (pre-race interview)
- Tiziano Moia (Italy) – 31:59
- Paul Machoka (Kenya) – 32:16
- Richard Omaya Atuya (Kenya) – 32:28
- Alberto Vender (Italy) – 32:31
- Håkon Skarsholt (Norway) – 32:51
- Christian Allen (U.S.) – 33:09
- Klemen Španring (Slovenia) – 33:09
The 2024 Kilometro Verticale Lagùnc males’s podium (left-to-right): 2. Henri Aymond, 1. Andrea Elia, and three. Patrick Kipngeno. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
