On Sunday, September 28, the 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships will come to an in depth with the World Mountain Working Championships (WMRC) Up and Down race.
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The Up and Down, or typically known as the Traditional, will go for 14.3 kilometers (8.9 miles) and with 767 meters (2,516 ft) of elevation achieve on a two-loop course. Every loop has one huge climb, and it’s the final race of the four-day occasion. The ladies begin at 10:30 a.m. CEST and the boys go two hours later.
As with the opposite three championships, there’s a 24,000 Euro prize purse between the boys’s and ladies’s races, with 5,000 Euro to the winners and money payouts by way of fifth place.
To see extra of who’s racing, take a look at the whole begin checklist for all the occasions.
Along with our pre- and post-race protection of the WMRC Up and Down race, we’ll present some race-day protection, each liveblogging right here on the web site and throughout our social media.
The beginning of the 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Up and Down ladies’s race. Picture: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
2025 World Mountain Working Championships Up and Down Males’s Preview
Podium Potential Males
Whereas Ugandan males have received every of the final two WMRC Up and Down races, there’s no defending champ coming again this 12 months, and the remainder of the Ugandan squad seems untested. This places Kenya’s Philemon Kiriago as the favourite. He was second on the 2023 WMRC Up and Down race, received this 12 months’s Sierre-Zinal race, and he’s been on the rostrum in any respect six Golden Path World Collection races he’s entered this 12 months. In contrast to in 2023, when he positioned seventh within the WMRC Uphill race too, Kiriago might be contemporary with only one race on the weekend this 12 months.
Philemon Kiriago finishes the 2023 WMRC Up and Down race in second place. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
A number of Mountain Working World Cup races have had a Kenyan podium sweep this 12 months, and it may occur right here, too. Roll the cube, any of Timothy Kibett, Paul Machoka, or Michael Selelo Saoli may win on the day. Kibett received this 12 months’s Pitz Alpine 23k, a part of the Golden Path World Collection, and Saoli was fourth there. Saoli was third at this 12 months’s Sierre-Zinal, and Machoka was fifth there too, which means it was three Kenyan’s from this Up and Down race within the high 5 there.
The 2025 Sierre-Zinal males’s podium (left to proper): 5. Paul Machoka, 3. Michael Selelo Saoli, 1. Philemon Kiriago, 2. Patrick Kipngeno, and 4. Adrien Briffod. A few of these males are racing the 2025 WMRC Up and Down race. Picture: WMRA/Marco Gulberti
In current historical past, the Ugandan crew has executed properly at this occasion, and it may very well be any of Abel Chebet, Aziz Chebet, Martin Kiprotich, or Isaac Masai protecting the profitable streak alive this 12 months. All 4 look new to the world champs, and little is understood about their path prowess. The crew has, nonetheless, been coaching collectively at altitude in Kapchorwa, one of many nation’s endurance hotspots. Abel Chebet is the crew’s captain and a multiple-time nationwide champion. It won’t imply something on this course, however Kiprotich ran the ten,000-meter monitor race on the 2024 Olympics and has stellar 13:21 and 27:41 private bests for five,000 and 10,000 meters, respectively.
Possibly it’s a scorching take, however that’s it. It’s a small group of eight males from Uganda and Kenya with the potential to win the race. In 2022, Uganda positioned 4 males inside the highest 5, with Kenyan Patrick Kipngeno — who isn’t on this race, this 12 months — putting second, and in 2023, Kenya and Uganda had 4 of the highest 5.
Extra Males to Watch
- Jacob Adkin (Nice Britain) – twentieth 2023 WMRC Up and Down; third 2025 Vauban Mountain Path Uphill
- Xavier Chevrier (Italy) – ninth 2023 & 14th 2022 WMRC Up and Down; eighth 2022 WMRC Uphill; eighth 2023 Sierre-Zinal
- Mason Coppi (U.S.) – 2nd 2025 U.S. Mountain Working Championships; 4th 2024 & tenth 2023 U.S. Mountain Working Championships Up and Down
- Bogdan Damian (Romania) – eighth 2022 Path World Champs Quick Path; third 2025 Kobe Path
- Andrew Douglas (Nice Britain) – twenty second 2023 & seventeenth 2022 WMRC Up and Down
- Lukas Ehrle (Germany) – fifth 2025 Damaged Arrow 23k
- Alejandro García (Spain) – sixth 2023 & fifteenth 2022 WMRC Up and Down; third 2022 WMRC Uphill; 14th 2025 Sierre-Zinal
- Théodore Klein (France) – twelfth 2023 & 2022 WMRC Up and Down; tenth 2025 Vertical Nasego
- Jáchym Kovar (Czech Republic) – nineteenth 2023 & tenth 2022 WMRC Up and Down
- Remi Leroux (Canada) – twenty fifth 2023 & 14th 2022 WMRC Uphill; sixth 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent; 4th 2025 & 2nd 2024 Mount Washington Street Race
- Cesare Maestri (Italy) – seventh 2023 & ninth 2022 WMRC Up and Down; fifth 2024 & 4th 2023 Trofeo Nasego
- Leonard Mitrica (Romania) – twelfth 2025 Zegama Marathon
- David Norris (U.S.) – ninth 2025 OCC; 1st 2025 U.S. Mountain Working Championships
- Julius Ott (Germany) – thirteenth 2023 WMRC Uphill; eleventh 2023 WMRC Up and Down
- Dominik Rolli (Switzerland) – seventh 2025 Pitz Alpine 23k; tenth 2022 Sierre-Zinal
- Cam Smith (U.S.) – twentieth 2022 WMRC Uphill; third 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent
- Jonas Soldini (Switzerland) – tenth 2025 Pitz Alpine 23k
- Taylor Stack (U.S.) – third 2025 Pitz Alpine 23k; twelfth 2025 Sierre-Zinal; sixth 2025 Damaged Arrow 23k
Cesare Maestri (left) and Xavier Chevrier (proper) on their solution to ending seventh and eighth, respectively, within the 2022 WMRC Uphill race. Each are racing the 2025 version. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2025 World Mountain Working Championships Up and Down Ladies’s Preview
Podium Potential Ladies
It’s exhausting to foretell what you’re going to get from Kenya’s Joyce Njeru in 2025. Competing within the Golden Path World Collection, she was sixth after a improper flip in Japan, dropped in China, got here again to win the Damaged Arrow 23k, then completed second in Mexico, however was then simply ninth in Sierre-Zinal. At her finest, Njeru can win right here, however she couldn’t make the highest 10, too. Njeru was third at this race in 2023 and is the highest returning finisher.
Joyce Njeru of Kenya finishes 2023 World Mountain Working Championships Up and Down race in third place. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Valentine Rutto is one other Kenyan who may run at or close to the entrance of the race. She was fourth on the WMRC Up and Down in 2023, and only recently completed third on the 2025 Vauban Mountain Path, behind different contenders within the area, together with Joyce Njeru, however in entrance of others, together with Scout Adkin.
Valentine Rutto, the 2025 Giir di Mont ladies’s winner. Picture: World Mountain Working Affiliation/@marcogulberti_photography
Nice Britain’s Scout Adkin was twelfth within the WMRC Up and Down race in 2023 and fifth in 2022. We’ll get a take a look at her present health within the occasion’s earlier 2025 WMRC Uphill race. Adkin skipped the Mountain Working World Cup Finals because of harm, however was nonetheless in a position to win the sequence, as she did in 2024. If wholesome, she’s primed to enhance on her previous performances at this race. Adkin has received Mountain Working World Cup races everywhere in the world the final two years, together with races towards Joyce Njeru who’s racing right here.
Scout Adkin ran away with the win on the 2024 Mountain Working World Cup Finals VK. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
It’s unlikely within the WMRC Uphill or Path World Champs Quick Path races, however the U.S. may win right here with a pair of 26-year-olds. Lauren Gregory had a global breakthrough ultimately 12 months’s Golden Path World Collection Closing when she completed second, received the 2025 Tepec Path 34k, one other Golden Path World Collection race, and was fourth on the 2025 Damaged Arrow 23k. Anna Gibson is due for a global breakout too. Gibson beat Gregory at this 12 months’s U.S. Mountain Working Championships, the choice race for the WMRC Up and Down, and beat Joyce Njeru on the 2025 Damaged Arrow Ascent, too.
Anna Gibson racing the 2025 Damaged Arrow 23k. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Allie McLaughlin is one other American who may run away with it. She was third on the 2022 WMRC Up and Down, the identical 12 months that she received the WMRC Uphill. McLaughlin was third on the 2024 Damaged Arrow 23k and in addition received the 2024 USATF Half Marathon Path Nationwide Championships.
Allie McLaughlin of the USA on her solution to taking third on the 2022 WMRC Up and Down race. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The race is just a little extensive open, and 23-year-old Oria Liaci from Switzerland may steal it. Liaci ran a 32:41 10,000-meter street race and a 1:11 half marathon this winter, and was simply fourth at Sierre-Zinal after profitable the Swiss Mountain Working Nationwide Championships this 12 months. She’s filled with upward potential.
It’s the identical for 22-year-old Nélie Clément from France. At this 12 months’s Vauban Mountain Path in France, she beat contenders Joyce Njeru, Scout Adkin, and a number of other different challengers under too. Maybe, as with Oria Liaci, youth may be rewarded on this world stage.
Different Ladies to Watch
Martyna Młynarczyk on her solution to profitable the 2025 CCC. Picture: UTMB
[Christel Dewalle previously served a four-month doping ban after a positive test for the stimulant Heptaminol at the 2016 Skyrunning World Championships.]
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