Welcome to Innsbruck! The city of 130,000 in western Austria, and the mountains of the Stubai Valley to the southwest of the city, just kicked off the second-ever combined World Mountain and Trail Running Championships.
The 2023 festivities opened on Wednesday, June 7, with the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race and Kenya’s Patrick Kipngeno and Austria’s Andrea Mayr earned the event’s first individual golds. Kipngeno finished in 40:18, a repeat win from last year, and Mayr topped out in 48:14. It was incredibly Mayr’s seventh world championship win.
The course gained 1,020 meters over 7.1 kilometers and finished way up high at the Elfer Hut above the Stubai Valley. Alternately, that’s 3,346 feet across 4.4 miles.
Be sure to check out our 2023 Trail World Championships 40k results article from the Thursday, June 8, event.
Be sure to also check out our 2023 Trail World Championships 40k results article, 2023 Trail World Championships 80k results article, and 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Up and Down race results article.
Andrea Mayr, 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race winner. This was Mayr’s, who hails from the host country of Austria, seventh mountain running world championships victory. Photo: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill Men’s Race
Bursts of AC/DC’s “T.N.T. “and Queen’s “We Will Rock You” pumped the runners up at the start and they might’ve jumped the line just a second or two early. A Spanish runner went down right away at the start, clutching his right shoulder as the field ran away. The race started with a 900-meter flat-ish road section through town, as a way to get to the trails and gain some separation.
Early men’s race leaders during the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Canada’s Alexandre Ricard joined a Kenyan and Ugandan lead pack for the first several minutes, wisely distancing from the bigger group. That’s because only three minutes into the race a fence gate bottlenecked runners further back. And then less than 10 minutes into the race, slower runners were already grabbing a few power-hike steps on the steeper terrain.
Halfway up the mountain Ricard was gone from the lead pack, and defending champion Patrick Kipngeno of Kenya asserted himself at the front. Levi Kiprotich from Uganda was in pursuit, and Kenyan and Ugandan runners were in third and fourth too, setting up for a close team race. Joseph Gray, the 2019 World Mountain Running Champion from the USA, had moved up nicely and raced in fifth.
Patrick Kipngeno, 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race winner. He successfully defended his 2022 title, and looked casual as he gapped the field by 1.5 minutes. Photo: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
The race finished on crowd-lined singletrack above treeline, and Kipngeno was so far ahead that he had time to high five spectators while smiling before finishing. Kipngeno’s 40:18 finish was 93 seconds better than everyone else. He was exactly that far ahead last year too. Kipngeno will double back for Saturday’s World Mountain Running Championships Up and Down race.
Levi Kiprotich was second in 41:51, perhaps giving up some time to his chasers late. Kenya’s Josphat Kiprotich and Uganda’s Eliud Cherop were third and fourth in 42:04 and 42:16, respectively.
Joseph Gray stayed in fifth in 42:32.
Each country’s first three runners scored in the team competition, and scored via finish position (not by time), and with three runners inside the top seven, Kenya totaled only 11 points to win team gold. Uganda placed second with 21 points, and Switzerland was a surprise third.
Levi Kiprotich (right) leading his Ugandan teammates, on his way to taking second at the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill Men’s Results
- Patrick Kipngeno (Kenya) – 40:18
- Levi Kiprotich (Uganda) – 41:51
- Josphat Kiprotich (Kenya) – 42:04
- Eliud Cherop (Uganda) – 42:16
- Joseph Gray (USA) – 42:32
- Daniel Osanz (Spain) – 42:41
- Philemon Kiriago (Kenya) – 42:54
- Joe Steward (U.K.) – 43:02
- Filimon Abraham (Germany) – 43:08
- Roberto Delorenzi (Switzerland) – 43:31
Josphat Kiprotich (right) and other runners early in the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race. He started conservatively, and he finished third. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill Women’s Race
The women took off at 2:00 p.m. local time, an hour after the men’s start, in 23-degree Celsius (80-degree Fahrenheit) sunny skies. That same 900-meter rolling road section meant another sprint start with Kenyan and Uganda runners at the lead, and Allie McLaughlin, last year’s World Mountain Running Championships Uphill Champion, leapt into the early lead a few minutes in too, and only after clipping that problematic fence gate.
Fifteen minutes into the race though things were different and Austria’s Andrea Mayr moved into the lead and quickly opened a minute-plus gap.
Andrea Mayr (right) running conservatively, within the top-15 women, early in the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race. She would go on to win the race. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Kenya’s Philaries Kisang, last year’s Thyon-Dixence race winner in Switzerland, spied Mayr from a distance, and when the grade eased a little, Kisang quickly made up time on Mayr. As the two moved above tree-line, Kisang improbably regained the lead and put a few steps on Mayr. The excitement was short lived as Mayr moved back past Kisang and mercied her into hiking.
Mayr clutched the host country flag as she finished, and the added drama of that late duel certainly outshined the excitement of the earlier men’s race.
Mayr finished in 48:14 and Kisang was second in 48:51.
Mayr, a seven-time world champion who was second at last year’s World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race, was incredible. Mayr, now age 43, is a former steeplechaser and a two-time Olympic marathoner. This was her first world championships win since 2016, and comes a remarkable 17 years after her first win in 2006. Her other wins came in 2008, 2010, 2012, and 2014 — all uphill years, back when the championships alternated uphill and up-and-down years. Mayr, as with men’s winner Kipgneno, won €4,000. That was part of a total €16,500 cash purse that went five deep.
Philaries Kisang on her way to finishing second at the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race. Photo: iRunFar/Sarah Brady
Grayson Murphy, coolly racing in a sprint-style one-piece suit, chased in third at 49:11. Murphy was the 2019 World Mountain Running Champion.
Fourth- and fifth-place Laura Hottenrott and Valentine Jepkoech Rutto of Germany and Kenya finished in 49:56 and 49:59.
Early pace pusher McLaughlin would finish 13th in 52:27.
Kenya easily won the team race, placing three runners inside the top 10. Their 17 points was followed by Germany with 33 for second place, and the U.K. was third with 51 points.
2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill Women’s Results
- Andrea Mayr (Austria) – 48:14
- Philaries Kisang (Kenya) – 48:51
- Grayson Murphy (USA) – 49:22
- Laura Hottenrott (Germany) – 49:56
- Valentine Jepkoech Rutto (Kenya) – 49:59
- Christel Dewalle (France) – 50:04
- Domenika Mayer (Germany) – 51:21
- Scout Adkin (U.K.) – 51:39
- Karoline Holsen Kyte (Norway) – 51:51
- Joyce Muthoni (Kenya) – 52:09
[Editor’s Note: Christel Dewalle previously served a four-month doping ban after a positive test for the stimulant Heptaminol at the 2016 Skyrunning World Championships.]
The event continues with the Trail World Championships 40k on Thursday, June 8, the Trail World Championships 80k on Friday, June 9, and the World Mountain Running Championships Up and Down race on Saturday, June 10.
Philaries Kisang (left) and Grayson Murphy (middle) run close together in the early kilometers off the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race. Kisang would finish second, and Murphy third. Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
