Kenya’s Philaries Jeruto Kisang and Richard Atuya enjoy victories at iconic mountain running race in Italy
The beautiful Italian Alps played host to the first short uphill race of the 2025 World Cup on Saturday (May 24). We saw a day of exciting and close racing, including a course record and a case of ‘third time’s the charm’ for one of the winners.
This is a double header weekend for the World Cup, with Trofeo Nasego on Sunday (May 25), so the historic town of Casto in the province of Brescia in the Lombardy region is completely immersed in the sport for the weekend. This year celebrates the ninth year for Vertical Nasego and the 23rd year for Trofeo Nasego, and they are both races that always attract strong fields. This year is no exception.
Vertical Nasego climbs 1000 metres over the course of 4.2km, with a fast start on roads and good, runnable trails. As the race unfolds the route becomes steeper and more technical as it passes Rifugio Nasego (at 1270m) before finishing at Corna di Savallo at 1436m.
Women
The women’s race set off first and with five-time winner, Andrea Mayr (Hoolirun), the 2023 and 2024 runner-up, Philaries Jeruto Kisang (Run2gether), and defending women’s World Cup champion, Scout Adkin (HOKA EU), on the start line, the competition promised to be fierce. The route really ramps up in terms of gradient as it gets into the second half, with runnable sections giving way to steeper parts as the runners get closer to the summit, so we knew that we would see a fast start, then a likely shake-up as the race unfolded.
At the halfway point it was Kisang who led, and she was very closely followed by Adkin. A little further behind them Mayr, the queen of this event, loomed ominously. Now aged 45, and having achieved a huge amount in this sport including an incredible seven World Championship wins between 2006 and 2023, she remains the formidable competitor she has always been. Just behind Mayr at this point was Francesca Ghelfi (A.S.D. Podistica Valle Varaita), who herself has some history with this event, having finished on the podium in Trofeo Nasego.
So we had an interesting battle for the gold between Kisang and Adkin, then an equally interesting battle going on for bronze between Mayr and Ghelfi. As the runners emerged on to the final part of the cruelly steep ascent it was Kisang who appeared first. She took the win in 38:55.
Kisang has so often finished second in World Cup races, including two second places here, with her style of taking it out from the front, so it must have been extremely gratifying for her to finish on the top step of the podium.
Adkin took a strong second place in 39:23 and it was Ghelfi who won the contest with Mayr for bronze just over a minute behind in 40:37. Mayr was fourth, with Sara Willhoit just behind for fifth.
Men
Next up was the men’s race, starting 45 minutes after the women’s. Last year’s winner, Patrick Kipngeno, was not defending his title but the list of men queuing up to take it from him was formidable. The line-up included two-time winner Henri Aymonod (The North Face), Andrea Elia (La Recastello Radici Group), three-time Italian VK champion for the last three years, as well as Andrea Rostan (Atletica Saluzzo), Philemon Kiriago and Richard Atuya (both Run2gether).
At the halfway point it was Atuya who was leading, but just a few seconds back were a pack of four athletes attempting to hunt him down. This group consisted of Kiriago, Elia, Rostan and Luciano Rota (La Recastello Radici Group). At this point it really was anybody’s race once the steeper terrain began.
Atuya did manage to hold off this impressive group of challengers and he took the win in 33:23, a course record. Just 14 seconds separated second and fourth, with Kiriago making it a 1-2 for Team Run2gether with Elia just two seconds behind him in third. Rostan took fourth and Aymonod came through to take fifth.
It’s obviously early days for the 2025 World Cup competition but Saturday’s race takes Scout Adkin further ahead in the women’s competition and it takes Henri Aymonod into the lead in the men’s, just one point ahead of Andrea Rostan.
On Sunday most of today’s runners, plus a whole host of other big names, will take on Trofeo Nasego. The race starts at 9.30am local time and you can follow Trofeo Nasego and WMRA social media channels for up-to-date information and imagery. See wmra.info
