It’s virtually right here! The 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships kick off Thursday, September 25, in Canfranc, Spain, with the World Mountain Working Championships (WMRC) Uphill race. The boys begin at 10:00 a.m. CEST, and the ladies an hour later.
Thanks a lot to The North Face for sponsoring iRunFar’s protection of the 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships!
The all-uphill climb is 6.4 kilometers (4 miles) in distance, with a gradual 990 meters (3,248 toes) of elevation achieve. That is the occasion’s solely race that doesn’t begin from the Canfranc Worldwide Railway Station. As a substitute, it begins two kilometers north on the Lodge Santa Cristina. The course climbs by means of a black pine forest to a end excessive on Larraca Mountain within the Spanish Pyrenees.
Following the 2022 occasion in Thailand (which was delayed a yr because of COVID-19) and the 2023 occasion in Austria, that is the third time that the World Mountain and Path Working Championships have come collectively below a typical umbrella, combining the Uphill and Up and Down races of the WMRC and the Lengthy Path and Quick Path races of the Path World Championships. The merging has actually added to the occasion’s status.
Runners from 49 international locations will participate within the males’s race, and the ladies’s race has 44 completely different international locations represented. There’s a 24,000 Euro prize purse between the boys’s and girls’s races, with 5,000 Euro to the winners and money payouts by means of fifth place.
To see extra of who’s racing, try the entire begin checklist for all the occasions.
Along with our pre- and post-race protection, we’ll present some race-day protection, each liveblogging right here on the web site and throughout our social media.
The 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill race males’s podium (left-to-right): 2. Levi Kiprotich, 1. Patrick Kipngeno, 3. Josphat Kiprotich. Kipngeno returns in 2025. Photograph: Marco Gulberti
2025 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill Males’s Preview
Podium Potential Males
Name it a three-peat, or name it a hat trick, Kenya’s Patrick Kipngeno goes for it. Kipngeno’s already a double world champion. He received the WMRC Uphill race in 2022 in Thailand and received once more in 2023 in Austria. He additionally received Golden Path World Sequence races in Japan and China in the beginning of this yr, and most just lately was second at Sierre-Zinal in August. A 3rd win on the world championships would cement his standing as one of many world’s finest climbers ever.
Patrick Kipngeno, 2023 WMRC Uphill race winner. Photograph: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
Solely three months after Patrick Kipngeno received his world title in 2023, Switzerland’s Rémi Bonnet beat him on the Pikes Peak Ascent in Colorado, after which Bonnet outclimbed him, in addition to many different of the world’s finest climbers, on his method to victory every week later on the 2023 Mammoth Path Fest 23k. Bonnet wasn’t at both of the sooner world championships, and so this was an enormous blow to Kipngeno’s standing because the world’s finest uphiller. That was two years in the past although, and Bonnet hasn’t reached these ranges since. Bonnet began 2025 with a shock Thirty first-place end on the Il Golfo dell’Isola Golden Path World Sequence race after which shut the season down with harm. He hasn’t raced since, and his social media shared that he was nonetheless solely biking in early August. If Bonnet makes the beginning line, can he be near world-class kind so quickly into his comeback?
Rémi Bonnet profitable the 2023 Pikes Peak Ascent and setting a brand new course file. Photograph: Golden Path Sequence | Pikes Peak Ascent | The Journey Bakery
Rémi Bonnet’s outclimbed Patrick Kipngeno earlier than, and so too has Italy’s Andrea Elia. The uphill all-star received final yr’s Mountain Working World Cup Finals VK in Italy, in a race the place Kipngeno was third. Extra just lately, Elia was third at this yr’s Vertical Nasego in Italy in Might. He was, although, solely nineteenth at 2023 WMRC Uphill race.
Italy’s Andrea Elia, the 2024 Mountain Working World Cup Finals VK champion. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Uganda’s Eliud Cherop was fourth on the 2023 WMRC Uphill, however that was practically two full minutes behind winner Patrick Kipngeno. Cherop was second at this yr’s Ugandan Nationwide Mountain and Path Working Championships Uphill race, and he ran 29:31 for the ten,000 meters on the observe on the Ugandan Nationwide Championships earlier this summer season too.
Joseph Grey of the U.S. has been right here earlier than, many occasions. He’s a two-time world champion, having received the WMRC Up and Down course in 2019 and the WMRC Uphill in 2016. Grey was fifth on the WMRC Uphill in 2023 and sixth in 2022, too. At age 41, Grey continues to be on the entrance of many fields, together with putting second on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent — which was the U.S. choice race for the WMRC Uphill — and can also be prone to be the quickest masters runner within the race.
Joseph Grey, first U.S. male within the 2023 WMRC Uphill race. Photograph: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
Joseph Grey was crushed on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent by Christian Allen, who’s a 2:10 marathoner and has been actually up and down on the paths. He’s accomplished properly within the U.S. however struggled when racing in Europe. Within the U.S., he received each the 2024 USATF 10k and Half Marathon Path Nationwide Championships, however he was simply twenty first at Sierre-Zinal, fifteenth on the Pitz Alpine 23k, which is a part of the Golden Path World Sequence, and dropped on the Val d’Aran 50k, all earlier this summer season.
Christian Allen on his method to a win and spot on Staff USA for the 2025 WMRC Uphill on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Extra Males to Watch
- Richard Omaya Atuya (Kenya) – 1st 2025 Vauban Mountain Path Uphill; 1st 2025 Vertical Nasego; 1st 2024 Mountain Working World Cup Finals VK
- Johan Bugge (Norway) – twenty first 2023 & eleventh 2022 WMRC Uphill; seventeenth 2023 & forty fifth 2022 WMRC Up and Down
- Samuel Cherop (Uganda) – Has run 13:29 for 5k on the street in 2025
- Xavier Chevrier (Italy) – ninth 2023 WMRC Up and Down; eighth 2022 WMRC Uphill
- Lukas Ehrle (Germany) – fifth 2025 Damaged Arrow 23k
- Alex García (Spain) – third 2022 WMRC Uphill; 14th 2025 & twelfth 2024 Sierre-Zinal
- Zak Hanna (Eire) – fifth 2022 WMRC Uphill
- Isaac Kibet (Uganda) – 1st 2025 Ugandan Nationwide Mountain and Path Working Championships Uphill
- Alex Kiplangat (Uganda) – third 2025 Ugandan Nationwide Mountain and Path Working Championships Uphill
- Théodore Klein (France) – third 2024 Mountain Working World Cup Finals Path Race; twentieth 2023 WMRC Uphill; tenth 2025 Vertical Nasego
- Remi Leroux (Canada) – twenty fifth 2023 & 14th 2022 WMRC Uphill; sixth 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent; 4th 2025 & 2nd 2024 Mount Washington Street Race
- Quentin Meyleu (France) – 18th 2023 WMRC Uphill; seventh 2025 Vauban Mountain Path Uphill; seventh 2025 Vertical Naego
- Emmanuel Meyssat (France) – sixteenth 2023 WMRC Uphill; fifteenth 2023 WMRC Up and Down; fifth 2025 Vauban Mountain Path Uphill
- Julius Ott (Germany) – thirteenth 2023 WMRC Uphill; eleventh 2023 WMRC Up and Down
- Alexandre Ricard (Canada) – 1st 2025 Mount Washington Street Race; seventeenth 2023 & tenth 2022 WMRC Uphill; 1st 2024 Canadian Mountain Working Championships Uphill
- Dominik Rolli (Switzerland) – eleventh 2023 WMRC Uphill; seventh 2025 & tenth 2022 Sierre-Zinal; seventh 2025 Pitz Alpine 23k
- Andrea Rostan (Italy) – 14th 2023 WMRC Uphill; 4th 2025 Vertical Nasego
- Cam Smith (U.S.) – twentieth 2022 WMRC Uphill; third 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent
- Jonas Soldini (Switzerland) – twenty fourth 2023 & twelfth 2022 WMRC Uphill
Richard Omaya Atuya, the 2025 Giir di Mont Uphill males’s winner. Photograph: World Mountain Working Affiliation/@marcogulberti_photography
2025 World Mountain Working Championships Uphill Ladies’s Preview
Potential Podium Ladies
Kenya’s Philaries Kisang received an WMRC Uphill silver medal in Austria in 2023, and he or she is the highest returning lady. Uphill legend Andrea Mayr from Austria, the 2023 champion, is not going to defend her crown. Kisang has continued to shine in uphill races. She received this yr’s Vertical Nasego race, in addition to the Trofeo Nasego, and was second on the 2024 Mountain Working World Cup Finals VK.
Philaries Kisang on her method to second on the 2023 WMRC Uphill. Photograph: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
Scout Adkin from Nice Britain received the 2025 and 2024 Mountain Working World Cup collection, and has received Uphill races within the course of. She skipped the 2025 Mountain Working World Cup Finals in August due to harm. If wholesome, Adkin might enhance on her 2023 WMRC Uphill eighth-place end. Adkin was eleventh on this identical race in 2022 in Thailand. In 2024, she received the Mountain Working World Cup Finals VK forward of Philaries Kisang.
Scout Adkin, the 2025 Giir di Mont Uphill girls’s winner. Photograph: World Mountain Working Affiliation/@marcogulberti_photography
Italy’s Francesca Ghelfi excels in Mountain Working World Cup uphill races too. Scout Adkin edged Ghelfi to win this yr’s Giir di Mont Uphill in Italy, and Philaries Kisang beat each of them on the Vertical Nasego race the place Ghelfi positioned third. Ghelfi was this yr’s uphill nationwide champion for Italy. She was, although, solely 18th on the 2023 WMRC Uphill race.
It’s from the World Athletics Championships to the World Mountain Working Championships for Kenya’s Janeth Chepngetich. Within the 10,000-meter observe race in Tokyo, Japan, on September 13, Chepngetich didn’t end. Her social media pointed to potential harm. For what it’s price, Chepngetich’s 29:55 10,000-meter street finest from 2024 is probably going one of the best of the sector. Earlier this yr, she received the Tindiret Barng’etuny Mountain Run in Kenya, a 14k mountain race, which we expect is what certified her for this crew.
We’d not but know what we’re going to get from Janeth Chepngetich then, however Switzerland’s Maude Mathys is near a certain guess. Third at this yr’s OCC, third at this yr’s Sierre-Zinal, and third on the 2021 WMRC Uphill race, Mathys is all the time across the podium.
Maude Mathys climbing her method to victory on the 2024 Kobe Path. Photograph: Golden Path Sequence/Kobe Path/Justin Galant
In April, Germany’s Laura Hottenrott ran 2:26 on the Düsseldorf Marathon. That’s in no way uphill, however she was fourth on the 2023 WMRC Uphill and fifth at this yr’s Sierre-Zinal race.
American Anna Gibson is a rising star who might put collectively a podium problem. Gibson’s accomplished properly at aggressive races within the U.S., together with profitable the Damaged Arrow Ascent and putting third on the 23k, however she has not but received internationally. She was eighth at this yr’s Sierre-Zinal and sixth in 2024, and eleventh on the 2025 Zegama Marathon.
Anna Gibson, the 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent girls’s champion. Photograph: Damaged Arrow Skyrace/Howie Stern
Allie McLaughlin of the U.S. received the 2022 WMRC Uphill and positioned thirteenth on the occasion in 2023. McLaughlin received the 2024 USATF Half Marathon Path Nationwide Championships and was third on the 2024 Damaged Arrow Ascent.
Allie McLaughlin, 2022 WMRC Uphill Champion. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Extra Ladies to Watch
- Jade Belzberg (Canada) – twenty seventh 2023 WMRC Uphill; third 2025, 2nd 2024, & fifth 2022 Damaged Arrow Ascent
- Anne-Marie Comeau (Canada) – 4th 2023 WMRC Uphill; seventeenth 2023 WMRC Up and Down; third 2025 Mount Washington Street Race
- Emma Cook dinner-Clarke (Canada) – 2nd 2025 Speedgoat 50k; 2nd 2022 Damaged Arrow Ascent
- Christel Dewalle (France) – sixth 2023 & eighth 2022 WMRC Uphill
- Naiara Irigoyen (Spain) – 1st 2024 Skyrunning World Championships Vertical
- Onditz Iturbe (Spain) – fifth 2022 WMRC Uphill
- Ruth Jones (Nice Britain) – 14th 2022 WMRC Uphill
- Oria Liaci (Switzerland) – 4th 2025 & eighth 2024 Sierre-Zinal
- Marie Nivet (France) – sixteenth 2022 WMRC Up and Down; sixth 2025 Damaged Arrow 23k
- Sydney Petersen (U.S.) – 4th 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent; tenth 2025 U.S. Mountain Working Championships
- Susanna Saapunki (Finland) – seventh 2025 Sierre-Zinal; 4th 2024 Mountain Working World Cup Finals VK
Jade Belzberg working onerous to take third on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
[In 2015, Maude Mathys received a warning without suspension from the Disciplinary Chamber for Doping Cases of Swiss Olympic for two positive tests for clomifene (previously clomiphene) after it was determined that she was mistakenly taking the drug without first obtaining a World Anti-Doping Agency Therapeutic Use Exemption.]
[Christel Dewalle previously served a four-month doping ban after a positive test for the stimulant Heptaminol at the 2016 Skyrunning World Championships.]
Name for Feedback
- Who’s your decide for the fasted man to the highest of the mountain? Is there anybody we missed who may very well be at or close to the entrance?
- The ladies’s Uphill race may be probably the most huge open of any on the championships. Who’s a darkish horse or newcomer that we would’ve ignored?
