The 2025 World Mountain and Trail Running Championships are underway and the Novuna GB&NI team are off to a strong start with Jacob Adkin 5th in the Uphill Race.

Kirsty Dickson and Scout Adkin both finished in the top 15 of the women’s race, which started one hour later on the same course.

Over 6.5km and 986m of vertical gain, the men’s and women’s uphill races kicked off with a 600m stretch of uphill tarmac before a sharp left turn onto narrow, steep singletrack.

Women’s race

Once the initial burst from the start line had passed the course took a relentlessly steep path up though the black pine forests to the summit of Laracca. up around 2200m above sea level.

At the midway point of the race both Kirsty Dickson (Carnethy Hill Running Club) and Scout Adkin (Angela Mudge, Moorfoot) were just three seconds apart in 12th and 13th respectively, whilst team mates Eden O’Dea (Deeside AAC) and Ruth Jones (Andrew Henderson, Leeds City) were a couple of minutes behind in 36th and 41st.

The race was being led by Nina Engelhard of Germany, with Susanna Saapunki of Finland and Martha Chemutai of Uganda in close proximity. As the altitude increased the first two stayed the same, but Anna Gibson of the USA took the Bronze medal.

Dickson held onto 12th  in 48:23, whilst Adkin was 15th 20 seconds later, having lost two spots to fast finishing high altitude natives from Colombia and Kenya. Jones and O’Dea were just seven seconds apart in 38th and 39th in 52:17 and 52:24 respectively.

The Novuna GB&NI team secured seventh place in a world class field of uphill mountain runners, with the Italian team taking gold.

The men’s race

In the men’s event, Jacob Adkin (Moorfoot) was sitting in around 20th place at the sharp turn into the start of the steeper trail, but the former European Uphill Champion knows the event well and was already into 6th point by the 3.6km timing mat.

In his element as the trail gets steeper, Adkin overtook Eliud Cherop of Uganda and was only 14 seconds from the podium by the finish line in 39:34.

“In a stacked field, I’m very happy to have finished in fifth place” Adkin said post race. “It was a great course with an incredible backdrop that showcased what makes this sport special.”

The race was won by Swiss athlete Remi Bonnet, who led from the gun, with Richard Omaya Atuya and Patrick Kipngeno of Kenya in second and third.

Matthew Knowles (Sophie Dunnett, Carnethy) was the second Novuna GB&NI athlete home in 24th place, with Finlay Grant (Dark Peak) and Oscar Subuh-Symons (Sarah McCormack, Ambleside/Dorking & Mole Valley) in 46th and 47th.

The men’s team also secured seventh spot, with gold going to Kenya.

Photos courtesy of Jamie Rutherford Photography