Philemon Kiriago of Kenya is just 22 years old, and already he is one of trail running and mountain running’s top performers, having recently pushed Kilian Jornet to a sprint finish at the 2024 Sierre-Zinal, where he finished second, having won the 2023 edition.
He is approaching the close of a hectic season, where he contested concurrently the World Mountain Running Association World Cup and the Golden Trail World Series. We caught up with him to find out a little about his training and background, and his plans for a big future in the sport.
Philemon Kiriago, the 2023 Sierre-Zinal men’s winner. Photo: World Mountain Running Association/Marco Gulberti
Philemon Kiriago grew up in the town of Kisii, about 70 miles from Kericho, in Western Kenya. His first foray into sport as a youngster was playing handball. He said, “I was trying to see where my talent was. I played handball in school, but I didn’t do very well at it, so I started running 800 meters and 5,000 meters.”
Kiriago found his niche in cross-country running for a time, before answering the call of the mountains. He said, “After joining Run2gether, I heard that there is something that people call mountain running. I tried it in Kenya at our camp and I found I was doing better at it. Our coaches gave me good motivation, so I started to focus on mountain running.”
Run2gether is a cross-cultural running club that was started in 2007, when an Austrian athletics group from Fürstenfeld and a Kenyan running club, Bushtrekkers Kenya, decided to form a partnership. They formed an exchange system, where runners from Austria would travel to Kenya to live and train with local runners — and vice versa. Through the partnership, runners from both sides have had the opportunity to learn about and become immersed in the other’s culture, and benefit from their different styles of training and racing.
Kenyan and Austrian athletes at a Run2gether training camp. Photo: Run2gether
Currently several of Kenya’s top mountain runners train under the Run2gether umbrella, with a training camp in Austria where they can live and train to prepare for the summer season, while training over the winter at home in Kenya. As well as Kiriago, the athlete roster also includes Patrick Kipngeno, Josphat Kiprotich, Gloria Chebet, and Philaries Jeruto Kisang. The not-for-profit organization also has an academy for promising young runners, to nurture the running talent of tomorrow.
After joining Run2gether in 2021, Kiriago was taken under the wing of Austrian coach Thomas Krejci, who introduced him to European mountain running, and the following year he was ready to dive straight into competing at the highest level.
He began his 2022 racing campaign by contesting the Grossglockner Berglauf mountain race in Austria, where he placed second behind his teammate and compatriot, Kipngeno. The pair repeated their first and second placings at both the Montée du Nid d’Aigle and Giir Di Mont Uphill races that year, with Kipngeno coming out on top on each occasion.
The 2022 Grossglockner Berglauf men’s podium: (l-to-r) 3. Petro Mamu, 1. Patrick Kipngeno, 2. Philemon Kiriago. Photo: World Mountain Running Association/Marco Gulberti
Next for Kiriago, he placed fifth in his Sierre-Zinal debut, at the 2022 edition of the race that would go on to be a defining part of his story. After taking two more podium spots at the 2022 Canfranc-Canfranc Classic and Vertical Kilometer, Kirago closed out a stellar year by taking a familiar second place behind Kipngeno at the 2022 World Mountain Running Championships Uphill race in Thailand.
At the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships in Austria, just seven months later, he again took second in the Up and Down race, this time to Leonard Chemutai of Uganda.
Philemon Kiriago of Kenya finishes the 2023 World Mountain Running Championships Up and Down race in second place Photo: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
After so many runner-up finishes, Kiriago’s breakthrough win was a big one — and fittingly took place on his 21st birthday — the 2023 Sierre-Zinal. An untouchable climber, Kipngeno led the race to its high point, but Kiriago put time on him once the course flattened out, and on the descent. Kiriago ultimately finished first in 2:27:27, three minutes and 20 seconds clear of Kipngeno in second.
He said, “At Sierre-Zinal, I ran the best races of my life. It made me known all over the world. This race really shows how strong you are in mountain running.”
For 2024, Kiriago has been busy, contesting both the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) World Cup and the Golden Trail World Series. He is currently ranked second in WMRA World Cup standings, with Run2gether athletes accounting for five of the top six positions in the men’s WMRA World Cup ranks. He credits the group and the team atmosphere with his success, saying, “I train with them every time … you need a group to support you.”
Athletes high-five at the end of a Run2gether training session. Photo: Run2gether
In training, Kiriago racks up 180 to 200 kilometers per week. Perhaps in contrast to a lot of European and American mountain runners, for Kiriago and his teammates, mountain runners and road runners train side-by-side. During the early part of the year, while laying the foundation for the season ahead, he follows the same training as the road runners. Just two months out from racing, he switches up his training to be more mountain-specific, but added, “I do one strong speed session with the road runners every week.”
He said there has been “no time for recovery from when we start racing, only after the end of the season. After finals we will have one race in Kenya, then recovery until next June.” Still, during his recovery period, he will continue to run up to 20 kilometers per day, but at a lower intensity.
Kiriago’s 2024 season started with Siguniang Mountain Yunjianhuajing 22k in China in late April, where he placed fourth; followed by second in the Montemuro Vertical Run, as part of the WMRA World Cup; and fifth in the 2024 Montée du Nid d’Aigle.
Then once again, Sierre-Zinal placed him back in the spotlight, when he made a memorable late-stage challenge on Jornet, narrowly losing out on the win, but coming in just one second over Jornet’s prior course record for the third fastest Sierre-Zinal finish of all time.
He said, “This year it was great. I had taken my time training in Europe. Our camp in Austria is a good place to train before going to run Sierre-Zinal, it can get you in good shape. I wasn’t expecting to run that well, but only good training can make good running.” Kiriago also places importance on “a strong mindset in every run and every race.”
Kilian Jornet and Philemon Kiriago embrace at the finish of the 2024 Sierre-Zinal, where they took first and second. Photo: World Mountain Running Association/Marco Gulberti
Following Sierre-Zinal, the Golden Trail World Series took Kiriago to the U.S., where he contested both the Headlands 27k and the Mammoth Trail Fest 26k. At Headlands, Kiriago again found himself in a sprint finish, this time contesting Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco, having left both Kipngeno and Swiss runner Rémi Bonnet behind. In the end, Elazzaoui won by the narrowest of margins.
Kiriago said after, “The race was very fast. I had a good pace and led the group from the start until the last downhill when Elhousine overtook me. He was the strongest and I’m very happy to finish on the podium of this crazy race.”
At Mammoth, Elazzaoui again took the win, while Kiriago took third, while acting as pacemaker for Kipngeno, who finished second. He said after, “I had to set a blistering pace on the flat to exhaust the others so that Patrick could push in the climb. That was today’s plan, even if I had to stand aside afterward. It almost worked, but we’ll have to push even harder in the final if we want to win!”
Perhaps it is, to some degree, the element of teamwork that Run2gether athletes bring to an otherwise individual sport that gives them a competitive edge.
Looking ahead, when I asked Kiriago if he would be interested in stepping up to ultra distances at some point, he said, “I do look forward to running longer distances in the coming years, because I feel I am better at longer distances.”
But more immediately, he will conclude his 2024 season with the WMRA World Cup Final, in Italy in mid-October; followed by the 2024 Golden Trail World Series Grand Final, to be held in the Swiss region of Ascona-Locarno in late October. We can’t wait for the next part of his story.
Call for Comments
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