Britain’s Scout Adkin and Andrew Douglas end runners up behind Kenyan runners on the WMRA mountain occasion in Portugal.
The 2026 Mountain Operating World Cup season bought underway in spectacular trend, with São Brás Cross in Central Portugal offering a worthy and atmospheric curtain-raiser. This yr’s World Cup competitors is essentially the most bold but, spanning 4 continents and 10 international locations throughout 16 races – a worldwide showcase that balances beloved calendar staples similar to Sierre-Zinal and the Grossglockner Mountain Run with contemporary venues designed to showcase thrilling new venues and landscapes.
THE COURSE
São Brás Cross made a right away impression on its World Cup debut, delivering precisely the number of terrain and surfaces that its title implies. Categorized as a Basic Up and Down, the ten.9km route with 628 metres of ascent was a becoming season opener for the World Cup given its manageable distance and elevation.
The course asserted its persona on the runners immediately. Beginning amid the cobbled streets and stone-fronted homes of a conventional Portuguese village, the route plunged right into a steep valley, the place opponents crossed a stepping-stone river ford – the primary style of the canyon and river terrain that defines this a part of Central Portugal. From there, the race climbed steeply to its excessive level earlier than a quick, switchback descent gave strategy to a forest path operating alongside the river to the 7km mark.
The closing phases promised to be unforgiving. An extended penultimate climb was adopted by a descent again into city, earlier than a ultimate, punishing ascent on highway to the end line ensured no athlete may afford to ease off till they’d crossed the road.
As the house race of World Cup sponsor Tourism Central Portugal, São Brás Cross had each incentive to impress, and it delivered. Not overly steep or technical, the course was a real mountain traditional: different, scenic and demanding sufficient to type the sphere with out overwhelming it. An ideal first take a look at for the athletes on this yr’s competitors.
ACTION FROM THE WOMEN’S AND MEN’S RACES
The race had separate begins for women and men, with the ladies beginning first.
Within the girls’s race it was defending World Cup champion Scout Adkin (GBR, HOKA EU) who struck out, carefully adopted by one of many breakout stars of final yr’s World Cup Nélie Clément (FRA, Hole Hautes Alpes Athlétisme) and runner-up from the 2025 World Championships Basic race, Ruth Mwihaki Gitonga (KEN, Run2gether On Path). Elle Twentyman (GBR, New Stability) accomplished the preliminary group, with Marie Nivet (FRA, Nike ACG) 15 seconds behind.
For the boys, as anticipated, it was Michael Selelo Saoli (KEN, Run2gether On Path), third place total in final yr’s World Cup, who set the early tempo. He was joined initially by a gaggle of 9, together with Théodore Klein (FRA, Entente Haute Alsace), 2019 World Cup champion Andrew Douglas (GBR, Westerlands CCC), and Matthew Knowles (GBR, Salomon UK), World junior champion in 2019.
The primary gaps began opening within the lengthy uphill taking the runners to the summit at 3.5km. Adkin led Gitonga, then Clement was 30 seconds behind them, carefully adopted by Twentyman, with one other hole again to Martina Falchetti (ITA, La Sportiva) and Nivet. The uphill had the same impact on the boys’s race, and Saoli broke away from the group to take the lead, with Douglas simply 10 seconds behind, carefully adopted by Oscar Subuh-Symons (GBR, Staff OMM/Ambleside AC), Klein and Knowles.
However whereas the lengthy uphill began to shake issues up, it was the downhill part between kilometres 4 and 6 that proved decisive. It was right here that Gitonga made her transfer and handed Adkin, and it was right here that Saoli pulled away from the chasing Douglas. Gaps began to open up within the high 10s in each fields.
By the timing level at 7.5km Gitonga had a 25 second lead over Adkin, with a 30-second hole again to Clement, who remained in third, then a minute’s hole again to Twentyman, with Nivet finishing the ladies’s high 5 one other minute behind. It was beginning to appear like the highest three can be tough to catch, however something can occur with quick, traditional programs like this.
On the identical level for the boys Saoli had created a 30-second hole again to Douglas and Klein, with a small hole again to Subuh-Symons, with Knowles barely additional again. The boys’s podium was nonetheless inside attain for a lot of runners and it was all going to return right down to the following climb, the superfast downhill and the ultimate lung-busting uphill dash on the town to the end.
Regardless of Adkin protecting the stress on constantly, Gitonga proved inconceivable to reel in and he or she took the ladies’s win in 49:12. Adkin was second in 50:13 and Clement claimed third in 51.20, having elevated her hole to Twentyman to nearly two minutes. Gitonga introduced herself on the World Cup stage in a giant method, and appears to be a brand new drive to be reckoned with, alongside Adkin.
Saoli additionally couldn’t be caught and gained the boys’s race in 42:22, with Douglas a extremely robust second in 43:27. Subuh-Symons overtook Klein within the ultimate kilometres to say third, a significant landmark in his mountain operating profession to this point. We noticed a lot of male athletes new to the World Cup on this race, which bodes nicely for an thrilling season.
Ladies
Ruth Mwihaki Gitonga (KEN, Run2gether On Path) – 49:12
Scout Adkin (GBR, HOKA EU) – 50:13
Nélie Clément (FRA, Hole Hautes Alpes Athlétisme) – 51:20
Elle Twentyman (GBR, New Stability) – 53:07
Marie Nivet (FRA, Nike ACG) – 53:20
Males
Michael Selelo Saoli (KEN, Run2gether On Path) – 42:22
Andrew Douglas (GBR, Westerlands CCC) – 43:37
Oscar Subuh-Symons (GBR, Staff OMM/Ambleside AC) – 44:07
Théodore Klein (FRA, Entente Haute Alsace) – 44:39
Matthew Knowles (GBR, Salomon UK) – 45:37
Subsequent the World Cup heads to China, for a double header in Beijing with an Uphill and Basic Up and Down race at Yanshou Path Problem subsequent weekend. See the total World Cup calendar at WMRA WORLD CUP
