The 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup finishes its season this weekend in northern Italy, with the Kilometro Verticale Lagùnc and the Val Bregaglia Path, and iRunFar is happy to cowl these races!
This 12 months’s 12-race world cup, administered by the World Mountain Operating Affiliation, started with the Damaged Arrow Skyrace occasions in Northern California in June, traveled to iconic mountain working occasions like Giir di Mont in Italy, Sierre-Zinal in Switzerland, and Šmarna Gora in Slovenia, earlier than transferring to those last two occasions in Italy in October.
The Kilometro Verticale Lagùnc begins within the city of Chiavenna, on the backside of a valley referred to as Val Bregaglia, and finishes within the mountainside village of Lagùnc. Curiously, that is the primary vertical-kilometer (VK) course ever established, in 1986! It’s an ideal vertical kilometer of climbing over 3.3 lateral kilometers. This race takes place on Saturday, October 12, at 9:15 a.m. CEST and is run in conventional VK model as a time trial, with athletes beginning each 30 seconds.
The path race, the Val Bregaglia Path, runs on Sunday, October 13 at 9:30 a.m. CEST. It covers among the trails tracing their approach round Val Bregaglia, which spans the Italy-Switzerland border. The occasion is 23 kilometers lengthy, has 850 meters of climbing, and has 900 meters of descending on a point-to-point course beginning within the village of Promontogno, Switzerland, and ending in Chiavenna.
The Mountain Operating World Cup is scored through an athlete’s finest eight outcomes over the course of the season, with factors awarded to the highest 18 finishers of every race. Prize cash totals 30,000 Euro, and goes 10 deep in each the ladies’s and males’s sequence. Quite a few the person races on this planet cup supply their very own prize cash as nicely.
The 2022 Trofeo Nasego ladies’s podium (l-to-r): 2. Joyce Muthoni Njeru, 1. Andrea Mayr, and three. Lauren Gregory. All three ladies will compete this weekend. Picture: Marco Gulberti/Corsa in Montagna
This weekend, quick feminine mountain runners will take part in a single or each of those occasions, hoping to prime the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup. On this preview, we have a look at the ladies anticipated to be prime performers in a single or each races. The world cup standings are presently led by Kenya’s Joyce Muthoni Njeru, and she or he’s entered in each occasions this weekend, seeking to enhance her factors complete and seal her title. Behind her are a giant group of chasers, together with the U.Ok.’s Scout Adkin and Kenya’s Philaries Jeruto Kisang, who respectively sit in second and third place on this planet cup to date.
We’ll be offering protection of each races this week, so keep tuned.
Because of the World Mountain Operating Affiliation for supporting iRunFar’s protection of the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals.
Make sure you try our in-depth males’s preview as nicely.
Listed below are the ladies we anticipate to compete for the highest spots at one or each the Kilometro Verticale Lagùnc and Val Bregaglia Path.
Joyce Muthoni Njeru
- Mountain Operating World Cup Rating: 1st
- Prime 2024 World Cup Performances: 1st Damaged Arrow VK; 1st Damaged Arrow Skyrace; 1st Trofeo Nasego; 1st Šmarna Gora
A presence for years on the worldwide mountain working circuit, Kenya’s Joyce Muthoni Njeru is having a giant 2024 whereas concurrently competing within the Mountain Operating World Cup and the Golden Path World Collection — and she or he’s shining in each. She was additionally the 2023 Mountain Operating World Cup champion. Her lead within the 2024 standings is courtesy of a sweep of the 2 world cup occasions, a VK and a Skyrace, at Damaged Arrow in addition to wins at Italy’s Trofeo Nasego and Slovenia’s Šmarna Gora. She’s registered to compete in each the VK and path race this weekend. The races and sequence are hers to lose.
Joyce Muthoni Njeru, 2024 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k ladies’s champion. Muthoni Njeru will compete to win the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup this weekend. Picture: Howie Stern
Scout Adkin
- Mountain Operating World Cup Rating: 2nd
- Prime 2024 World Cup Performances: 1st Montée du Nid d’Aigle; 2nd Sierre-Zinal
The U.Ok.’s Scout Adkin has been acting on the worldwide degree in mountain working since at the very least the 2022 World Mountain Operating Championships, when she took fifth on the Up and Down race. In 2023, she was within the prime 10 on the world championships once more, taking eighth on the Uphill race. Her prime efficiency in 2024 as far as been a giant one, taking second at Sierre-Zinal, which will likely be this 12 months’s best mountain race by leaps and bounds.
She was additionally fourth on the European Off Street Championships Up and Down race this 12 months. The world cup rankings are fairly shut for 1st by means of third locations Joyce Muthoni Njeru, Adkin, and Philaries Jeruto Kisang, and with Adkin additionally registered in each occasions, there’s loads of room for a shakeup within the ladies’s podium.
Scout Adkin, the 2023 Sky Gran Canaria Vertical winner. Adkin is competing in each races this weekend. Picture: WMRA/Marco Gulberti
Philaries Jeruto Kisang
- Mountain Operating World Cup Rating: third
- Prime 2024 World Cup Performances: 2nd Grossglockner Mountain Run; 2nd Trofeo Nasego
Philaries Jeruto Kisang, of Kenya, rocketed onto our radar final summer season on the 2023 World Mountain Operating Championships when she took second on the Uphill race, and seventh on the Up and Down race. Like her countrywoman Joyce Muthoni Njeru, she’s additionally having a giant mountain working summer season whereas competing within the Mountain Operating World Cup and the Golden Path World Collection.
She took second within the 2023 Mountain Operating World Cup, behind Muthoni Njeru. She’s registered for each Saturday’s VK and Sunday’s path race, and the factors distinction between her and the remainder of the ladies’s prime three on this planet cup are shut sufficient that it’ll come down to those two races.
Philaries Jeruto Kisang on her method to ending second on the 2023 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race. She ought to be within the combine this weekend as nicely. Picture: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
Susanna Saapunki
- Mountain Operating World Cup Rating: 4th
- Prime 2024 World Cup Performances: third Vertical Nasego; third Trofeo Nasego
Susanna Saapunki, from Finland however residing in Italy, has a number of years of excellence in mountain working underneath her belt, with maybe her prime efficiency of the final couple being a sixth on the 2022 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race. Earlier this 12 months, she was sixth on the 2024 European Off Street Championships Up and Down race.
On this 12 months’s world cup, her performances have gotten stronger because the season has progressed, and she or he podiumed at each occasions in Nasego, Italy, in the beginning of September. Additionally, only a week after Nasego, Saapunki took the win on the Jungfrau Marathon, displaying that her later-season kind may be peaking at simply the proper time for this weekend. She’s signed up for each the VK and path race.
Susanna Saapunki on her method to successful the 2023 Šmarna Gora. She’ll doubtless be close to the entrance of this weekend’s races as nicely. Picture: Jonathan Wyatt
Lauren Gregory
- Mountain Operating World Cup Rating: forty first
- Prime 2024 World Cup Performances: eighth Vertical Nasego; sixth Trofeo Nasego
The U.S.’s Lauren Gregory is registered for the VK, and is a fairly good guess for a top-five place on this race. Her prime mountain working end result to date was in taking twelfth on the 2022 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race. She’s additionally a two-time U.S. Mountain Operating Champion, having received each the 2022 and the 2024 U.S. Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race.
Lauren Gregory through the 2022 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race. She completed twelfth and helped Crew USA safe the group gold medal. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Sara Willhoit
- Mountain Operating World Cup Rating: seventh
- Prime 2024 World Cup Efficiency: third Giir di Mont
All indicators level to the U.Ok.’s Sarah Willhoit being a runner on the rise within the international mountain working scene, along with her collaborating in each the 2023 and 2024 Mountain Operating World Cups. Final 12 months, she took ninth within the total standings. Her prime efficiency on this planet cup this 12 months was third place at Giir di Mont, however she additionally competed at each races in Nasego, taking eighth and tenth on the VK and path race, respectively. She’s registered for each races this weekend.
Sara Willhoit will likely be competing this weekend. Picture: World Mountain Operating Affiliation
Extra Prime Girls to Watch on the 2024 Mountain Operating World Cup Finals
And these are the ladies we anticipate to see working for top-10 positions on the VK and/or path race this weekend.
- Ioana Mădălina Amariei (Romania) – 1st 2024 Giir di Mont; 2nd 2024 Maga SkyMarathon
- Vivien Bonzi (Italy) – fifth 2024 Trofeo Nasego
- Martina Brambilla (Italy) – 2nd, 4th, & sixth 2017, 2016, & 2015 Giir di Mont
- Nina Carisch (Switzerland) – 1st & 2nd 2024 & 2023 Swiss Irontrail 50k
- Elisa Compagnoni (Italy) – fifth 2019 Thyon-Dixence
- Arianna Dentis (Italy) – fifth 2024 Italian Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race; sixth 2024 Fletta Path
- Eli Anne Dvergsdal (Norway) – twelfth & 1st 2023 & 2019 Zegama Marathon
- Alice Gaggi (Italy) – 2013 World Mountain Operating Champion; fifth & ninth 2023 & 2021 Sierre-Zinal
- Naomi Lang (U.Ok.) – 4th 2024 Trofeo Nasego; fifth 2024 European Off Street Championships Up and Down race
- Camilla Magliano (Italy) – sixth 2024 Montemuro Vertical Run; 18th, eleventh, & thirteenth 2024, 2023, & 2022 Sierre-Zinal
- Laurel Moyer (U.S.) – sixteenth 2024 Mammoth Path Fest 26k; eighth 2023 Damaged Arrow Skyrace
- Rachel Tomajczyk (U.S.) – 2nd 2024 & 2023 U.S. Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race; third 2023 U.S. Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down race
Name for Feedback
- How do you see the Mountain Operating World Cup Finals ending this weekend?
- What runners will you be watching particularly?
Rachel Tomajczyk (proper) would take second on the 2022 Whiteface Skyrace. Behind her Megan Lacy chases, and she or he took seventh. Picture: Michael Scott