Philemon Kiriago cannot forget how he lost last year in Sierre-Zinal, the Cathedral of the Trail, for just a second and a half before Kilian Jornet. The Kenyan had won in 2023, but it did not only escape a triumph, but ended on the wrong side of one of the best races in history. Because it was the tenth victory of Spanish in Swiss lands, by the end of the film in the descent, because of its error, to advance the legend too soon instead of waiting for the last kilometer of asphalt, without those roots in a dry terrain of 20% that serve as a prelude to the people. “I think about it every time I go out to train, it’s like a wound. When you make a mistake, you want the opportunity to rectify it.” Without his executioner, in other chores, he fulfilled his mission before a flat flying compatriots. He enforced his experience, that of one of the pioneers of the African trail, to lead a podium with the colors of his country and his team, Run2Gether, the Austrian project that opened the doors to Europe. A party to which Joyline Chepngeno joined, which repeated his 2024 crown.
The longevity of this race that joins the two localities of Valais that give it name over 31 kilometers with 2,200 meters of positive slope is explained because it represents a crossing of roads among many disciplines. Its low technical difficulty is an invitation for asphalt marathoners to try luck, without the most mountain profiles. “It’s your career, everyone can do well,” summarizes its director, Valentin Genoud. The test serves as a icing on the regular season of the Golden Trail World Series, the circuit that aspires to win Philemon in October, but is also part of the World Mountain Running Association. The support of the social fabric, with 720 volunteers, has cemented for 52 years what in practice is an informal world of the middle distance.
Few exits have more pedigree than the pistol on the outskirts of Sierre, with about 2,100 runners – the quota established by the organization for sustainability, leaving 20,000 on the waiting list – cooking at 35 degrees, waiting for the freedom to leave towards the shadow, a treacherous relief, that of a special category rise: seven kilometers with more than 1,300 meters of positive slope that do not fall from 24% on average. The arrival at the main supply, in Chandolin, in 12, may sound like relief: there is hardly any slope to cover, about 600 meters. Another poisoned candy. There, when all throwing coal, the climbing bill comes into play. And the firecrackers arrive, illustrious dorsals walking towards the finish line, with the more than 6,000 ‘tourists’, the non -competitive category that starts in the morning to enjoy more calmly from the five four thousand -meter peaks that surround the race, from the neighbor Weisshorn to the Cervino, the most illustrious and the farthest.
The quality of a Swiss corridor is measured by its times in Sierre-Zinal, so the Triathlete Adrien Briffod assumed the national odysse It exceeds 2,400– and maintain, this time, a mattress in the descent to cross the goal in 2H28M45s: four minutes more than last year, heat through, those sponges that are not enough to refrigerate the body. Patrick Kipngen, the world kilometer champion who is resisting the cathedral, was second to 23s and his compatriot Michael Saoli closed the podium at 29s. Too frenzy for the first two in the Zegama marathon, a more mining land. The ELAZZAUI, the Moroccan to whom Switzerland gave the first visas to run, the leader of the Golden, the best downer, did not have the watts for so much ascent. He was ninth to 7m13s, behind this time from Andreu Blanes, winner in 2022 in his debut, which made six minutes more than then to be eighth to 6m34s.
That crossroads that is Sierre-Zinal represents it better than anyone Joyline, the Kenyan who won in 2024 in her first trail race. As Philemon, he submitted to a growing flat of African, including Caroline Kimutai, his executioner in April in the Great Chinese wall. That experience marked the difference between the debutante and the winner, who knew how to win in 2H54M49S, 42s less than his compatriot. The Podium was closed by the American Katie Schide, a speed feat for a ultra -artist teacher, the winner last year of the 171 kilometers of the ultra trail of Mont Blanc: it reached only 3m41s.
He needed it to win by just 26s to Maude Mathys, perhaps the best Swiss mountain broker of all time. It arrived with the uncertainty of a season and a half away from the forefront, after a fall in the bike, aware of the African power. Few smiles looked in the finish line as their own: although their record, with 38 years, it may stay in four wins, has the record of the records, its 2H49m20s of 2019. That is why while the rest of the athletes dresses with their shoes to pay pleitesy to the sponsors, she goes out to the presentation with flip flops. “I hope they don’t bat my record,” he asked on the eve. Its page in the story is still good for another year. Kenya will return to the load in 2026, with Philemon at the head, which raised in the finish line of winning it five times, such as the greats of the Tour of France. At the moment, he can already train quietly, without the ghost of Kilian.
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