Philemon Kiriago breaks the Broken Arrow 23K record; Mădălina Florea wins $30,000
Kiriago surged in the last minute to beat Elhousine Elazzaoui by 13 seconds in 1:42:59; Florea led the women from the Stairway to Heaven descent.
Photograph: Philemon Kiriago on the final descent to Zinal at Sierre-Zinal in August 2026, by Christian David, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsPhilemon Kiriago of Kenya won the Broken Arrow Skyrace 23K in Olympic Valley on Sunday in 1:42:59, a course record. Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco, who set the old record of 1:43:53 last year, was second in 1:43:12, and Patrick Kipngeno, who won the Ascent on Friday, third in 1:44:34. Brayan Rodríguez of Mexico was fourth and Taylor Stack fifth.
Andy Wacker led the first road section, then Kiriago went to the front as soon as the climbing started. Elazzaoui chased from about 30 minutes in and was within two seconds by 5.8 miles. They ran the whole second-half descent together, and on the last dirt road Kiriago surged with a minute to go and the gap was 13 seconds at the line.
Mădălina Florea of Romania won the women's race in 2:02:18. Makena Morley and Joyce Njeru set the early pace; by 5.8 miles it was Njeru and Florea. Njeru led up the Stairway to Heaven ladders and Florea passed her on the descent, 16 seconds up by 10.4 miles. Lauren Gregory came past Tabor Hemming and Njeru on the final road for second in 2:03:56, with Njeru and Hemming both given 2:03:59 and Njeru placed third after a sprint in the finish chute. Nienke Brinkman was fifth. Njeru's 2:01:16 from 2025 stays the record.
The race is 23 km with about 4,500 feet of climbing by iRunFar's measure, a Mountain Running World Cup round, and it paid $30,000 to each winner from a $102,200 purse, ten places deep.
One of the biggest purses in American trail running went to a Kenyan and a Romanian who separated themselves from the field on the way down. Climbing wins the headlines; descending wins the race.
Sources: iRunFar; WMRA Mountain Running World Cup results; WMRA; iRunFar.
