Kiriago keeps his Mountain Running World Cup title as Gitonga wins the women’s crown on a tiebreak from home
Visa problems kept five Kenyan contenders out of the first World Cup final held outside Europe. Germany’s Nina Engelhard won both women’s races in Quebec.
Kenya’s Philemon Kiriago won the Mountain Running World Cup for the second year in a row, and his compatriot Ruth Gitonga took the women’s title without racing the final weekend, after the series finished at the Défi des Couleurs at Mont-Sainte-Anne in Quebec on 10 and 11 October.
Gitonga and Joyce Muthoni Njeru finished level on 384 points. The World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) declared Gitonga the winner on the tiebreak, because she had more race wins during the season. Britain’s Kirsty Skye Dickson was third on 264 points.
It was the first time the World Cup final had been held outside Europe, the WMRA said. It was also a final shaped by who could not get there.
Five Kenyans missing
According to the WMRA, visa problems prevented Richard Atuya, Michael Saoli and Patrick Kipngeno from racing in the men’s events, and Ruth Gitonga and Miriam Chepkirui in the women’s. Gitonga went into the weekend leading the women’s standings. Atuya and Saoli still finished second and third in the men’s overall standings, on 290 and 223 points, behind Kiriago’s 396.
Njeru did make it to Quebec, and she came close to overturning Gitonga’s lead. Before the weekend she trailed by 74 points, the WMRA reported. She finished eighth in the uphill race and then second in the classic up-and-down race, which brought her level on points but not on wins.
Engelhard wins twice
Germany’s Nina Engelhard, the 2025 double world mountain running champion, won both women’s races. On Saturday 10 October she took the uphill race, climbing the ski slopes of Mont-Sainte-Anne in 31:43, almost two minutes ahead of Dickson (33:32) and Erin Moyer of the United States (33:44).
On Sunday 11 October she won the classic race, about 16 km with 1,200 m of climbing over three ascents and descents, in 1:20:34. Njeru was second in 1:23:45 after passing France’s Nélie Clément (1:23:51) on the last descent, iRunFar reported.
Kiriago settles the men’s series
The men’s uphill race went to Meikael Beaudoin-Rousseau of the United States in 28:55, ahead of Canada’s Rémi Leroux (29:04) and Cam Smith of the United States (29:12). iRunFar noted that Beaudoin-Rousseau and Leroux had finished in the same order in 2025. Kiriago was fourth.
He made up for it on the Sunday, winning the classic race in 1:11:24, 19 seconds ahead of Mason Coppi of the United States, with Leroux third in 1:13:21. Kiriago went into the weekend leading the men’s standings on 304 points, according to the WMRA.
The uphill result also settled the discipline titles: Njeru won the women’s uphill category and Atuya the men’s, despite not racing in Quebec, on the WMRA’s figures. Gitonga and Saoli won the classic categories.
What comes next
The 2026 series ran to 16 races in ten countries on four continents, with total prize money the WMRA estimated at about €250,000. The next global championship is the 2027 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Cape Town, South Africa, scheduled for 6–10 October 2027, according to the WMRA.
