Kiriago repeats as WMRA mountain champion, Gitonga keeps hers from home
Philemon Kiriago won the WMRA World Cup finale in Quebec to repeat as champion; Ruth Gitonga kept her title on a tiebreak without racing.
Photograph: Philemon Kiriago at Sierre-Zinal, 2022, by Johann Conus, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe last stop on this year's WMRA Mountain Running World Cup, at Défi des Couleurs on Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec, settled two titles, and only one of them was decided by a race.
Saturday's uphill went to the United States' Meikal Beaudoin Rousseau in 28:55, ahead of Canada's Remi Leroux in 29:04. Germany's Nina Engelhard took the women's uphill in 31:43, well clear of Britain's Kirsty Skye Dickson (33:32) and the United States' Erin Moyer (33:44).
Sunday's classic race, roughly 16km up and down the mountain, went to Kenya's Philemon Kiriago in 1:11:24. The United States' Mason Coppi finished 19 seconds back, with Leroux third again in 1:13:21. The win sealed Kiriago's second straight overall men's title, 396 points to 290 for compatriot Richard Atuya and 223 for Michael Saoli. Engelhard won the women's classic too, in 1:20:34, ahead of Kenya's Joyce Muthoni Njeru (1:23:45) and France's Nelie Clement (1:23:51), a sweep of all four races on the weekend.
The women's overall title went the other way. Ruth Gitonga of Kenya finished the season level with Njeru on 384 points, but Gitonga never made it to Quebec. Visa issues kept her out of the final round. She kept the title anyway, on a tiebreak that favors the athlete with more wins across the season. Njeru, who turned up and raced, finishes runner-up for a second year running. Dickson was third overall on 264 points.
Mountain running decides its champion over sixteen races across a year, not one weekend. That is fair when it rewards the season's best. It is a harder case to make when the title holder isn't on the start line.
Sources: World Athletics; WMRA.
