On Sunday, September 28, the 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships will come to a close with the World Mountain Running Championships (WMRC) Up and Down race.
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The Up and Down, or sometimes called the Classic, will go for 14.3 kilometers (8.9 miles) and with 767 meters (2,516 feet) of elevation gain on a two-loop course. Each loop has one big climb, and it’s the last race of the four-day event. The women start at 10:30 a.m. CEST and the men go two hours later.
As with the other three championships, there is a 24,000 Euro prize purse between the men’s and women’s races, with 5,000 Euro to the winners and cash payouts through fifth place.
To see more of who is racing, check out the complete start list for all of the events.
In addition to our pre- and post-race coverage of the WMRC Up and Down race, we’ll provide some race-day coverage, both liveblogging here on the website and across our social media.
- 2025 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill preview
- 2025 Trail World Championships Short Trail preview
- 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail women’s preview
- 2025 Trail World Championships Long Trail men’s preview
The start of the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Up and Down women’s race. Photo: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
2025 World Mountain Running Championships Up and Down Men’s Preview
Podium Potential Men
While Ugandan men have won each of the last two WMRC Up and Down races, there’s no defending champ coming back this year, and the rest of the Ugandan squad appears untested. This puts Kenya’s Philemon Kiriago as the favorite. He was second at the 2023 WMRC Up and Down race, won this year’s Sierre-Zinal race, and he’s been on the podium at all six Golden Trail World Series races he’s entered this year. Unlike in 2023, when he placed seventh in the WMRC Uphill race too, Kiriago will be fresh with just one race on the weekend this year.
Philemon Kiriago finishes the 2023 WMRC Up and Down race in second place. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Several Mountain Running World Cup races have had a Kenyan podium sweep this year, and it could happen here, too. Roll the dice, any of Timothy Kibett, Paul Machoka, or Michael Selelo Saoli could win on the day. Kibett won this year’s Pitz Alpine 23k, part of the Golden Trail World Series, and Saoli was fourth there. Saoli was third at this year’s Sierre-Zinal, and Machoka was fifth there too, meaning it was three Kenyan’s from this Up and Down race in the top five there.
The 2025 Sierre-Zinal men’s podium (left to right): 5. Paul Machoka, 3. Michael Selelo Saoli, 1. Philemon Kiriago, 2. Patrick Kipngeno, and 4. Adrien Briffod. Some of these men are racing the 2025 WMRC Up and Down race. Photo: WMRA/Marco Gulberti
In recent history, the Ugandan team has done well at this event, and it could be any of Abel Chebet, Aziz Chebet, Martin Kiprotich, or Isaac Masai keeping the winning streak alive this year. All four look new to the world champs, and little is known about their trail prowess. The team has, however, been training together at altitude in Kapchorwa, one of the country’s endurance hotspots. Abel Chebet is the team’s captain and a multiple-time national champion. It might not mean anything on this course, but Kiprotich ran the 10,000-meter track race at the 2024 Olympics and has stellar 13:21 and 27:41 personal bests for 5,000 and 10,000 meters, respectively.
Maybe it’s a hot take, but that’s it. It’s a small group of eight men from Uganda and Kenya with the potential to win the race. In 2022, Uganda placed four men inside the top five, with Kenyan Patrick Kipngeno — who is not in this race, this year — placing second, and in 2023, Kenya and Uganda had four of the top five.
More Men to Watch
- Jacob Adkin (Great Britain) – 20th 2023 WMRC Up and Down; 3rd 2025 Vauban Mountain Trail Uphill
- Xavier Chevrier (Italy) – 9th 2023 & 14th 2022 WMRC Up and Down; 8th 2022 WMRC Uphill; 8th 2023 Sierre-Zinal
- Mason Coppi (U.S.) – 2nd 2025 U.S. Mountain Running Championships; 4th 2024 & 10th 2023 U.S. Mountain Running Championships Up and Down
- Bogdan Damian (Romania) – 8th 2022 Trail World Champs Short Trail; 3rd 2025 Kobe Trail
- Andrew Douglas (Great Britain) – 22nd 2023 & 17th 2022 WMRC Up and Down
- Lukas Ehrle (Germany) – 5th 2025 Broken Arrow 23k
- Alejandro García (Spain) – 6th 2023 & 15th 2022 WMRC Up and Down; 3rd 2022 WMRC Uphill; 14th 2025 Sierre-Zinal
- Théodore Klein (France) – 12th 2023 & 2022 WMRC Up and Down; 10th 2025 Vertical Nasego
- Jáchym Kovar (Czech Republic) – 19th 2023 & 10th 2022 WMRC Up and Down
- Remi Leroux (Canada) – 25th 2023 & 14th 2022 WMRC Uphill; 6th 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent; 4th 2025 & 2nd 2024 Mount Washington Road Race
- Cesare Maestri (Italy) – 7th 2023 & 9th 2022 WMRC Up and Down; 5th 2024 & 4th 2023 Trofeo Nasego
- Leonard Mitrica (Romania) – 12th 2025 Zegama Marathon
- David Norris (U.S.) – 9th 2025 OCC; 1st 2025 U.S. Mountain Running Championships
- Julius Ott (Germany) – 13th 2023 WMRC Uphill; 11th 2023 WMRC Up and Down
- Dominik Rolli (Switzerland) – 7th 2025 Pitz Alpine 23k; 10th 2022 Sierre-Zinal
- Cam Smith (U.S.) – 20th 2022 WMRC Uphill; 3rd 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent
- Jonas Soldini (Switzerland) – 10th 2025 Pitz Alpine 23k
- Taylor Stack (U.S.) – 3rd 2025 Pitz Alpine 23k; 12th 2025 Sierre-Zinal; 6th 2025 Broken Arrow 23k
Cesare Maestri (left) and Xavier Chevrier (right) on their way to finishing seventh and eighth, respectively, in the 2022 WMRC Uphill race. Both are racing the 2025 edition. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2025 World Mountain Running Championships Up and Down Women’s Preview
Podium Potential Women
It’s hard to predict what you’re going to get from Kenya’s Joyce Njeru in 2025. Competing in the Golden Trail World Series, she was sixth after a wrong turn in Japan, dropped in China, came back to win the Broken Arrow 23k, then finished second in Mexico, but was then just ninth in Sierre-Zinal. At her best, Njeru can win here, but she could not make the top 10, too. Njeru was third at this race in 2023 and is the top returning finisher.
Joyce Njeru of Kenya finishes 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Up and Down race in third place. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Valentine Rutto is another Kenyan who could run at or near the front of the race. She was fourth at the WMRC Up and Down in 2023, and just recently finished third at the 2025 Vauban Mountain Trail, behind other contenders in the field, including Joyce Njeru, but in front of others, including Scout Adkin.
Valentine Rutto, the 2025 Giir di Mont women’s winner. Photo: World Mountain Running Association/@marcogulberti_photography
Great Britain’s Scout Adkin was 12th in the WMRC Up and Down race in 2023 and fifth in 2022. We’ll get a look at her current fitness in the event’s earlier 2025 WMRC Uphill race. Adkin skipped the Mountain Running World Cup Finals due to injury, but was still able to win the series, as she did in 2024. If healthy, she’s primed to improve on her past performances at this race. Adkin has won Mountain Running World Cup races all over the world the last two years, including races against Joyce Njeru who is racing here.
Scout Adkin ran away with the win at the 2024 Mountain Running World Cup Finals VK. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
It’s not likely in the WMRC Uphill or Trail World Champs Short Trail races, but the U.S. could win here with a pair of 26-year-olds. Lauren Gregory had an international breakthrough at last year’s Golden Trail World Series Final when she finished second, won the 2025 Tepec Trail 34k, another Golden Trail World Series race, and was fourth at the 2025 Broken Arrow 23k. Anna Gibson is due for an international breakout too. Gibson beat Gregory at this year’s U.S. Mountain Running Championships, the selection race for the WMRC Up and Down, and beat Joyce Njeru at the 2025 Broken Arrow Ascent, too.
Anna Gibson racing the 2025 Broken Arrow 23k. Photo: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Allie McLaughlin is another American who could run away with it. She was third at the 2022 WMRC Up and Down, the same year that she won the WMRC Uphill. McLaughlin was third at the 2024 Broken Arrow 23k and also won the 2024 USATF Half Marathon Trail National Championships.
Allie McLaughlin of the USA on her way to taking third at the 2022 WMRC Up and Down race. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
The race is a little wide open, and 23-year-old Oria Liaci from Switzerland could steal it. Liaci ran a 32:41 10,000-meter road race and a 1:11 half marathon this winter, and was just fourth at Sierre-Zinal after winning the Swiss Mountain Running National Championships this year. She’s full of upward potential.
It’s the same for 22-year-old Nélie Clément from France. At this year’s Vauban Mountain Trail in France, she beat contenders Joyce Njeru, Scout Adkin, and several other challengers below too. Perhaps, as with Oria Liaci, youth can be rewarded on this global stage.
Other Women to Watch
- Gloria Chebet (Kenya) – 4th 2025 Vauban Mountain Trail; 3rd 2024 Grossglockner Mountain Run
- Martha Chemutai (Uganda) – Has run 15:43 for 5,000 meters and 31:51 for 10,000 meters on the track in 2025
- Rebecca Cherop (Uganda) – Ran 1:11 for a half marathon in 2025
- Anne-Marie Comeau (Canada) – 17th 2023 WMRC Up and Down; 14th 2023 WMRC Uphill; 3rd 2025 Mount Washington Road Race
- Christel Dewalle (France) – 13th 2023 WMRC Up and Down; 6th 2023 WMRC Uphill
- Julia Font (Spain) – 14th 2023 & 10th 2022 Trail World Champs Short Trail; 13th 2025 Sierre-Zinal
- Alice Gaggi (Italy) – 5th 2025 Broken Arrow 23k; 6th 2025 Trofeo Nasego
- Francesca Ghelfi (Italy) – 14th 2023 WMRC Up and Down; 2nd 2025 Giir di Mont Uphill; 3rd 2025 Vertical Nasego
- Ruth Gitonga (Kenya) – 1st 2025 Mount Longonot Trail Challenge; ran a 1:11 half marathon on September 14, 2025
- Anna Hofer (Italy) – 5th WMRC Junior Up and Down; 11th 2025 Trofeo Nasego
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Tereza Hrochová (Czech Republic) – 8th 2023 & 11th 2022 WMRC Up and Down; 17th 2023 & 9th 2022 WMRC Uphill
- Onditz Iturbe (Spain) – 5th 2022 WMRC Uphill
- Martyna Młynarczyk (Poland) – 1st 2025 & 2nd 2024 CCC
- Élisa Morin (Canada) – 9th 2025 OCC
- Marie Nivet (France) – 16th 2022 WMRC Up and Down; 6th 2025 Broken Arrow 23k
- Susanna Saapunki (Finland) – 7th 2025 Sierre-Zinal; 4th 2024 Mountain Running World Cup Finals VK
- Sara Willhoit (Great Britain) – 20th 2023 WMRC Uphill; 8th 2025 Trofeo Nasego; 5th 2024 Broken Arrow 23k
Martyna Młynarczyk on her way to winning the 2025 CCC. Photo: 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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