Philemon Ombogo Kiriago of Kenya is simply 22 years outdated, and already he’s one in all path operating and mountain operating’s high performers, having lately pushed Kilian Jornet to a dash end on the 2024 Sierre-Zinal, the place he completed second, having received the 2023 version.
He’s approaching the shut of a busy season, the place he contested concurrently the World Mountain Working Affiliation World Cup and the Golden Path World Collection. We caught up with him to search out out slightly about his coaching and background, and his plans for a giant future within the sport.
Philemon Ombogo Kiriago, the 2023 Sierre-Zinal males’s winner. Photograph: World Mountain Working Affiliation/Marco Gulberti
Philemon Ombogo Kiriago grew up within the city of Kisii, about 70 miles from Kericho, in Western Kenya. His first foray into sport as a teenager was enjoying handball. He mentioned, “I used to be attempting to see the place my expertise was. I performed handball in class, however I didn’t do very properly at it, so I began operating 800 meters and 5,000 meters.”
Ombogo Kiriago discovered his area of interest in cross-country operating for a time, earlier than answering the decision of the mountains. He mentioned: “After becoming a member of Run2gether, I heard that there’s something that folks name mountain operating. I attempted it in Kenya at our camp and I discovered I used to be doing higher at it. Our coaches gave me good motivation, so I began to concentrate on mountain operating.”
Run2gether is a cross-cultural operating membership that was began in 2007, when an Austrian athletics group from Fürstenfeld and a Kenyan operating membership, Bushtrekkers Kenya, determined to kind a partnership. They fashioned an alternate system, the place runners from Austria would journey to Kenya to stay and practice with native runners — and vice versa. Via the partnership, runners from either side have had the chance to find out about and turn out to be immersed within the different’s tradition, and profit from their totally different types of coaching and racing.
Kenyan and Austrian athletes at a Run2gether coaching camp. Photograph: Run2gether
Presently a number of of Kenya’s high mountain runners practice beneath the Run2gether umbrella, with a coaching camp in Austria the place they’ll stay and practice to organize for the summer time season, whereas coaching over the winter at house in Kenya. In addition to Ombogo Kiriago, the athlete roster additionally contains Patrick Kipngeno, Josphat Kiprotich, Gloria Chebet, and Philaries Jeruto Kisang. The not-for-profit group additionally has an academy for promising younger runners, to nurture the operating expertise of tomorrow.
After becoming a member of Run2gether in 2021, Ombogo Kiriago was taken beneath the wing of Austrian coach, Thomas Krejci, who launched him to European mountain operating, and the next yr he was able to dive straight into competing on the highest degree.
He started his 2022 racing marketing campaign by contesting the Grossglockner Berglauf mountain race in Austria, the place he positioned second behind his teammate and compatriot, Kipngeno. The pair repeated their first and second placings at each the Montée du Nid d’Aigle and Giir Di Mont Uphill races that yr, with Kipngeno popping out on high on every event.
The 2022 Grossglockner Berglauf males’s podium: (l-to-r) 3. Petro Mamu, 1. Patrick Kipngeno, 2. Philemon Ombogo Kiriago. Photograph: World Mountain Working Affiliation/Marco Gulberti
Subsequent for Ombogo Kiriago, he positioned fifth in his Sierre-Zinal debut, on the 2022 version of the race that may go on to be a defining a part of his story. After taking two extra podium spots on the 2022 Canfranc-Canfranc Basic and Vertical Kilometer, Ombogo Kirago closed out a stellar yr by taking a well-recognized second place behind Kipngeno on the 2022 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race in Thailand.
On the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships in Austria, simply seven months later, he once more took second within the Up and Down race, this time to Leonard Chemutai of Uganda.
Philemon Ombogo Kiriago of Kenya finishes the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Up and Down race in second place Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
After so many runner-up finishes, Ombogo Kiriago’s breakthrough win was a giant one — and fittingly befell on his twenty first birthday — the 2023 Sierre-Zinal. An untouchable climber, Kipngeno led the race to its excessive level, however Ombogo Kiriago put time on him as soon as the course flattened out, and on the descent. Ombogo Kiriago finally completed first in 2:27:27, three minutes and 20 seconds away from Kipngeno in second.
He mentioned, “At Sierre-Zinal, I ran the very best races of my life. It made me identified everywhere in the world. This race actually exhibits how sturdy you’re in mountain operating.”
For 2024, Ombogo Kiriago has been busy, contesting each the World Mountain Working Affiliation (WMRA) World Cup and the Golden Path World Collection. He’s at the moment ranked second in WMRA World Cup standings, with Run2gether athletes accounting for 5 of the highest six positions within the males’s WMRA World Cup ranks. He credit the group and the workforce environment together with his success, saying, “I practice with them each time … you want a gaggle to assist you.”
Athletes high-five on the finish of a Run2gether coaching session. Photograph: Run2gether
In coaching, Ombogo Kiriago racks up 180 to 200 kilometers per week. Maybe in distinction to a whole lot of European and American mountain runners, for Ombogo Kiriago and his teammates, mountain runners and street runners practice side-by-side. In the course of the early a part of the yr, whereas laying the muse for the season forward, he follows the identical coaching because the street runners. Simply two months out from racing, he switches up his coaching to be extra mountain-specific, however added: “I do one sturdy velocity session with the street runners each week.”
He mentioned there was, “No time for restoration from once we begin racing, solely after the top of the season. After finals we can have one race in Kenya, then restoration till subsequent June.” Nonetheless throughout his restoration interval, he’ll proceed to run as much as 20 kilometers per day, however at a decrease depth.
Ombogo Kiriago’s 2024 season began with Siguniang Mountain Yunjianhuajing 22k in China in late April, the place he positioned fourth; adopted by second within the Montemuro Vertical Run, as a part of the WMRA World Cup; and fifth within the 2024 Montée du Nid d’Aigle.
Then as soon as once more, Sierre-Zinal positioned him again within the highlight, when he made a memorable late-stage problem on Jornet, narrowly shedding out on the win, however coming in only one second over Jornet’s prior course file for the third quickest Sierre-Zinal end of all time. He mentioned, “This yr it was nice. I had taken my time coaching in Europe. Our camp in Austria is an effective place to coach earlier than going to run Sierre-Zinal, it might get you in fine condition. I wasn’t anticipating to run that properly, however solely good coaching could make good operating.” Ombogo Kiriago additionally locations significance on “a powerful mindset in each run and each race.”
Kilian Jornet and Philemon Ombogo Kiriago embrace on the end of the 2024 Sierre-Zinal, the place they took first and second. Photograph: World Mountain Working Affiliation/Marco Gulberti
Following Sierre-Zinal, the Golden Path World Collection took Ombogo Kiriago to the U.S., the place he contested each the Headlands 27k and the Mammoth Path Fest 26k. At Headlands, Ombogo Kiriago once more discovered himself in a dash end, this time contesting Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco, having left each Kipngeno and Swiss runner Rémi Bonnet behind. Ultimately, Elazzaoui received by the narrowest of margins. Ombogo Kiriago mentioned after, “The race was very quick. I had a superb tempo and led the group from the beginning till the final downhill when Elhousine overtook me. He was the strongest and I’m very pleased to complete on the rostrum of this loopy race.”
At Mammoth, Elazzaoui once more took the win, whereas Ombogo Kiriago took third, whereas performing as pacemaker for Kipngeno, who completed second. He mentioned after, “I needed to set a blistering tempo on the flat to exhaust the others in order that Patrick might push within the climb. That was at this time’s plan, even when I needed to stand apart afterward. It virtually labored, however we’ll must push even more durable within the last if we wish to win!”
Maybe it’s, to a point, the factor of teamwork that Run2gether athletes deliver to an in any other case particular person sport that offers them a aggressive edge.
Trying forward, once I requested Ombogo Kiriago if he could be all in favour of stepping as much as extremely distances in some unspecified time in the future, he mentioned, “I do stay up for operating longer distances within the coming years, as a result of I really feel I’m higher at longer distances.”
However extra instantly, he’ll conclude his 2024 season with the WMRA World Cup Ultimate, in Italy in mid-October; adopted by the 2024 Golden Path World Collection Grand Ultimate, to be held within the Swiss area of Ascona-Locarno in late October. We will’t look ahead to the subsequent a part of his story.
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