Scout Adkin of Britain is runner-up in the women’s race in Sunday’s WMRA Mountain Running World Cup race
After an eventful Vertical Nasego on Saturday (May 24), on Sunday it was time for the 24th edition of Trofeo Nasego. Many of the runners were doubling up on both races, so last night it was a case of refuelling and recovering in the beautiful surroundings of Casto.
Trofeo Nasego is a long distance World Cup course of 20.6km with 1330m of ascent. It starts fairly gently, slowly ascending 300 metres over the first 10km, with some fast, runnable, undulating sections. But then the climb really begins in earnest, as the runners climb 700 metres over 7km as they make the long ascent up to the highest point of Rifugio Nasego at 1300m. After an initially steep descent it then becomes a fast downhill to the finish in Famea.
Women
On Saturday the racing between Philaries Kisang (Run2gether) and Scout Adkin (HOKA EU) was incredibly close, with Kisang eventually coming out on top. It was a tantalising prospect to see a rematch again today. As we are so used to seeing, Kisang struck out for the front right from the start but Adkin wasn’t going to let her open a gap and she stuck right to her heels.
At Piano di Alone at 5km Kisang remained in the lead, but Adkin was just five seconds behind her. A further 30 seconds behind was Valentine Jepkoech Rutto (Atletica Saluzzo), then a group including Joyce Muthoni Njeru (Atletica Saluzzo), Andrea Mayr (Hoolirun), Alice Gaggi (La Recastello Radici Group) and British runner Elle Twentyman.
As they approached the aid station at 12km at Pannelli, where the runners have started the long climb, but the steep section is yet to kick in, Kisang was holding her lead but Adkin was still just 10 seconds behind. Rutto remained in third, with the same group of chasers on their heels.
When they hit the foot of the tough climb up to Rifugio Nasego, which marks the highest point of the race, Kisang remained in command of this race and she had opened up the gap on Adkin a little – it was now 18 seconds. But the key change by this point was that they had opened up a gap on Rutto, Mayr and Njeru. The race was really on for first, but it was starting to look unlikely that anybody would be able to catch Kisang and Adkin, and they reached the Rifugio comfortably ahead.
We saw how evenly matched Kisang and Adkin are at ascending yesterday, so it was no surprise to see them reach the highest point close together. The big question was whether Adkin’s ascending skills could allow her to overtake Kisang on that long descent. It wasn’t to be and Kisang took the win in 1:46:16, after a nail biting sprint finish which saw Adkin finish just six seconds behind. The gap to third stretched out further on the descent as they battled it out and it was Njeru who took third in 1:51:33, with Rutto in fourth and Mayr in fifth.
Men
As expected the pace was fast from the off as the runners left Parco della Fucine. It was clear that Philemon Kiriago (Run2gether) was not going to give up his title from 2024 without a fight as he struck out into the lead. At the 5km point he had already opened a gap of 40 seconds over second placed Luciano Rota (La Recastello Radici Group). Behind Rota sat Michael Saoli (Run2gether), yesterday’s men’s winner Richard Atuya (Run2gether) and Roberto Giacomotti.
At Pannelli, at the 12km point just before the runners began the big climb, Kiriago was holding onto his lead and had in fact extended it to around a minute. Rota was still holding second and Paul Machoka (Atletica Saluzzo) had worked his way up to third, but it was still very close from second to sixth with Theodore Klein, Saoli and Atuya still within reach.
At the foot of the final part of the climb up to Rifugio Nasego, Kiriago was continuing to stretch out a gap and Machoka was by now in second, with Atuya in third. But it could all still change with this last section of ascent and then the big descent to go.
In fact Kiriago managed to increase his lead to two minutes by the time he reached Rifugio Nasego and it was starting to look doubtful that he could be caught. Machoka remained in second, and Atuya in third, just 20 seconds behind. The race for second and third was where the battle was at this point.
READ MORE: Vertical Nasego news
Eventually Kiriago could not be caught and he took the win in 1:31:41. Machoka maintained second and finished in 1:34:17. Saoli and Atuya both finished in 1:34:43, with Saoli given third.
Full results here.
