Scout Adkin runner-up at gruelling Vertical Nasego

Kenya’s Philaries Jeruto Kisang and Richard Atuya enjoy victories at iconic mountain running race in Italy

The beautiful Italian Alps played host to the first short uphill race of the 2025 World Cup on Saturday (May 24). We saw a day of exciting and close racing, including a course record and a case of ‘third time’s the charm’ for one of the winners.

This is a double header weekend for the World Cup, with Trofeo Nasego on Sunday (May 25), so the historic town of Casto in the province of Brescia in the Lombardy region is completely immersed in the sport for the weekend. This year celebrates the ninth year for Vertical Nasego and the 23rd year for Trofeo Nasego, and they are both races that always attract strong fields. This year is no exception.

Vertical Nasego climbs 1000 metres over the course of 4.2km, with a fast start on roads and good, runnable trails. As the race unfolds the route becomes steeper and more technical as it passes Rifugio Nasego (at 1270m) before finishing at Corna di Savallo at 1436m.

Women

The women’s race set off first and with five-time winner, Andrea Mayr (Hoolirun), the 2023 and 2024 runner-up, Philaries Jeruto Kisang (Run2gether), and defending women’s World Cup champion, Scout Adkin (HOKA EU), on the start line, the competition promised to be fierce. The route really ramps up in terms of gradient as it gets into the second half, with runnable sections giving way to steeper parts as the runners get closer to the summit, so we knew that we would see a fast start, then a likely shake-up as the race unfolded.

At the halfway point it was Kisang who led, and she was very closely followed by Adkin. A little further behind them Mayr, the queen of this event, loomed ominously. Now aged 45, and having achieved a huge amount in this sport including an incredible seven World Championship wins between 2006 and 2023, she remains the formidable competitor she has always been. Just behind Mayr at this point was Francesca Ghelfi (A.S.D. Podistica Valle Varaita), who herself has some history with this event, having finished on the podium in Trofeo Nasego.

So we had an interesting battle for the gold between Kisang and Adkin, then an equally interesting battle going on for bronze between Mayr and Ghelfi. As the runners emerged on to the final part of the cruelly steep ascent it was Kisang who appeared first. She took the win in 38:55.

Kisang has so often finished second in World Cup races, including two…