From September 25 to twenty-eight, a number of the world’s high mountain working and path working athletes gathered in Canfranc, Spain, for the 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships (WMTRC) to symbolize their international locations in 4 completely different occasions. Traditionally, many high runners have opted to skip the world championships for varied causes, together with busy race schedules, sponsorship conflicts, and monetary concerns. In its third working, this 12 months’s occasion introduced within the deepest fields throughout all 4 of the championships occasions — plus under-20 races — indicating a shift in how the occasion is perceived and valued amongst skilled off-road runners and their sponsors.
With the subsequent WMTRC scheduled for Cape City, South Africa, in October 2027, now is an effective time to look again on Canfranc and ask the place the occasion stands within the international path and mountain scene, the place it sits within the athletes’ minds and priorities, and the way it may be grown and improved sooner or later.
Nations proudly displayed their flags on the 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships opening ceremony. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The WMTRC is a results of World Athletics’ imaginative and prescient of working with the three globally acknowledged governing our bodies for mountain working, path working, and ultrarunning: the World Mountain Working Affiliation (WMRA), the Worldwide Path Working Affiliation (ITRA), and the Worldwide Affiliation of Ultrarunners (IAU). The occasion, now held each different 12 months, combines the longstanding Path World Championships and the World Mountain Working Championships right into a single occasion that includes Lengthy Path, Quick Path, Uphill, and Up and Down races.
In some ways, the third version of the mixed international federation-driven championships got here of age.
That is actually true by way of numbers. On the inaugural WMTRC in Thailand in 2022, which was postponed from 2021 as a result of COVID-19 pandemic, 642 athletes from 49 nations participated. The next 12 months, in Innsbruck, Austria, the variety of runners had nearly doubled to 1,190 throughout the varied begin traces, with athletes coming from 68 international locations. At Canfranc, there have been 1,298 racers on the beginning traces from 70 international locations. You may learn extra in regards to the historical past of the Path World Championships by 2023 for extra background on the occasion.
By way of efficiency, the racing at Canfranc was actually an enormous step up, with a lot deeper fields, leading to extra aggressive races. For quite a lot of causes, a number of the present stars of the game, together with People Jim Walmsley, who gained the lads’s Path World Championships Lengthy Path, and Katie Schide, who gained it for the ladies, focused a nationwide vest and a world title over extra profitable paydays at different races.
On this article, we study a number of the limitations that the WMTRC has confronted in attracting high expertise and why, regardless of these limitations, high runners proceed to prioritize the occasion. We talked with full-time skilled runners Francesco Puppi (Italy) and Schide, in addition to Britain’s Andy Symonds, who has mixed a full-time day job and a household with competing at a excessive degree for a few years, together with wins on the 2016 Laveredo Extremely and 2011 Les Templiers 80k, and a fifth place on the 2019 UTMB.
Francesco Puppi racing within the Group Italy crew equipment throughout the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Whereas Schide says, “I might say, after conversations with different athletes and my very own expertise, the Path World Championships, at the least for the longer distances, hasn’t been held to fairly the identical degree of status by way of model consciousness or recognition as some extra business occasions,” the occasion is rising shortly and has the potential to finally maintain a high spot within the path racing calendar.
A number of limitations exist for occasions just like the WMTRC in attracting skilled runners, notably when contemplating the occasion’s future.
Prize Cash
Trendy-day skilled runners make their dwelling from a mix of sponsorships, prize cash, and bonuses for wins at main occasions, and it might be naive to consider that prize cash at occasions doesn’t issue into choices to take part in sure races. The WMTRC should take care of competing in opposition to year-round business collection, such because the Skyrunning World Collection, the UTMB World Collection Majors, the Golden Path World Collection, and the WMRA World Cup — all of that are important attracts for athletes in lots of working disciplines.
World Athletics supplies funding for nations to deliver athletes to world championships — a part of the rationale the occasions exhibit higher range than typical business races — however the funding quantity pales compared to the prize cash related to bigger occasions. To encourage high runners to take part within the WMTRC, some main nations supply their athletes a coaching stipend in the event that they prioritize the occasion. For instance, in 2025, French athletes taking part within the WMTRC weren’t allowed to line up at races for a time frame beforehand, together with on the UTMB World Collection Finals held only a month earlier, however they obtained funds to offset potential prize cash payouts from missed races.
Nonetheless, for high skilled athletes, the prize cash on supply on the WMTRC, even when supplemented by their federations, is comparatively modest in comparison with different occasions.
Jim Walmsley wins a hard-fought 2025 OCC. Photograph: UTMB
On the UTMB World Collection Finals, the highest 10 in UTMB, CCC, and OCC all obtain prize cash, with the winner of UTMB strolling away with 20,000 Euro. Winners of CCC and OCC each obtain 13,000 Euro. Along with the Finals, the UTMB World Collection Majors occasions additionally pay out 5 deep, with the winners of every occasion pocketing 5,000 Euro. The Golden Path World Collection affords a complete prize purse of greater than 300,000 Euro throughout the race collection, together with 15,000 Euro for a collection win, and three,000 Euro on supply for the winners of every particular person race. The Skyrunning World Collection affords 93,800 Euro in prize cash for the general collection rankings unfold among the many high 10 athletes, with a prize of 15,000 Euro for particular person collection winners. The WMRA World Cup affords a complete prize pot of 30,000 Euro, with the collection winners every receiving 5,000 Euro.
By comparability, the whole prize cash obtainable at WMTRC was a modest 24,000 Euro prize purse for every occasion, break up between the women and men, with 5,000 Euro for a win and prize cash going 5 deep.
Given the participation within the WMTRC this 12 months, it’s clear that cash isn’t the one driving pressure for high athletes, and it’s obvious that athletes who goal the varied business collection are additionally eager to symbolize their nation in a nationwide vest on the world stage.
Puppi, whose resume contains wins on the 2025 CCC, Lavaredo Extremely, Canyons 100k, and Transgrancanaria, says that for an expert athlete, “You can begin with the belief that an athlete is racing the place it is sensible from a monetary perspective. I additionally have a look at issues from a working perspective and focus on with my coach, ‘What will we need to enhance and concentrate on this 12 months, and what are the most effective alternatives to compete with the most effective athletes on the earth?’” Puppi is fast to confess that not each athlete will get to make these decisions freely, saying, “Perhaps I’m in a privileged place, that I don’t have to fret that a lot about it. I imply, it’s not that I’m making a ton of cash from the game. I feel I simply need to reside merely, and I worth different points in sport greater than a brilliant excessive bonus or a brilliant excessive payday. I additionally come from a tradition in Italy that values sporting the nationwide vests far more than different racing alternatives.”
Katie Schide touches the rock after profitable the 2025 Hardrock 100 in course report time. Photograph: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
For Schide, winner of the 2025 Hardrock 100 and 2024 UTMB, who’s undoubtedly on the high of ladies’s path working proper now, it’s about selecting races that get her excited. She says, “I understand that’s kind of a privilege I’ve at this level in my profession, that I don’t want to focus on one thing for any person else simply to show some extent. However I additionally assume that as a result of I all the time goal races I’m enthusiastic about, I’ve a greater likelihood of performing properly as a result of I present up actually joyful and motivated to be there, normally coming in from coaching that I used to be joyful and motivated to do, as a result of I’m going to a race that I’m joyful and motivated to be at.”
Schide believes in taking an extended view of the monetary payout of selecting sure races, saying, “Typically that may imply selecting races which may not essentially have the largest bonus or the largest payout. I feel in case your solely purpose on this sport is to earn cash, then there are higher methods to try this than by solely selecting the races that inspire you, however I feel that with a purpose to preserve longer-term success and simply happiness within the sport, it’s necessary to comply with what’s motivating you intrinsically.”
Sponsorship Conflicts
When competing on the WMTRC, athletes race of their nationwide crew equipment, which is commonly sponsored by an organization aside from their private sponsors. Whereas this was a serious barrier up to now, with some manufacturers reportedly discouraging their athletes from racing at world championships as a result of they wouldn’t be representing their sponsors, this barrier appears to have softened lately. Athletes are nonetheless allowed to put on their sponsors’ sneakers and use varied different merchandise, however the visibility is restricted in comparison with a business race.
Ladies’s Path World Championships Lengthy Path winner Katie Schide (U.S.) is flanked by Group Nice Britain’s Andy Symonds (left) and Luke Grenfell-Shaw (proper) after the race. Photograph: Adrian Stott
Symonds is kind of open on this, saying, “I acknowledge that my sponsor shouldn’t be notably excited about my participating within the Path World Championships — not least as a result of I have to put on clothes from a competing model. Having stated that, it’s not one thing I’ve been inspired to keep away from in favor of different business races. This isn’t, nevertheless, the case for all runners. Those that are 100% professional and are taking a look at optimizing their earnings from working are naturally prone to be inclined to favor an enormous business occasion the place they’ll doubtlessly stroll away with a number of thousand Euro, extra likes on the web, and extra sponsorship alternatives.”
Symonds continues by saying, “As path working turns into extra well-liked and mainstream, it’s more and more seen as a business alternative, attracting manufacturers, sponsors, organizations, and random companies who may not have something to do with the game however can see business achieve from investing or being related to it. The benefits of this are that it permits extra athletes to make a dwelling from working on trails and over mountains, and consequently, it will increase the extent of competitors at occasions. One of many downsides, nevertheless, is that athletes, extra usually than up to now, will make choices primarily based on cash, moderately than the love of the game.”
Symonds factors out that that is principally a problem for these on the very entrance of the fields, and says, “I personally have all the time seen working as a pastime. I don’t compete to earn cash — I’ve a day job for that. With that in thoughts, my private decisions as to the occasions I participate in are usually primarily based on the standard of the occasions, the great thing about the programs, and the extent of competitors I would discover on race day.”
Progress of the WMTRC
The expansion of the WMTRC has led to it changing into an more and more necessary occasion on the path working calendar, and mixing the Path World Championships and the World Mountain Working Championships has accelerated this progress.
In accordance with Puppi, “The earlier standalone Path World Championships or Mountain Working World Championships have been one-day occasions. Now it’s a four-day program which feels extra like the correct championships that occur in biking, triathlon, or monitor and subject. I feel traditionally, the fields in mountain working have all the time been actually robust, however much less so with the Path World Championships. Since Thailand in 2022, when World Athletics mixed the 2, it has been far more aggressive, and that’s confirmed by the numbers and the way shut the time gaps are closing between main runners.”
The racing was shut between France’s Louison Coiffet (left) and Benjamin Roubiol (center), and American Jim Walmsley on the 2025 Path World Championships Lengthy Path. Photograph: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Symonds, who ran within the Mountain Working World Championships as a junior way back to 1999, additionally believes the mixed occasion is nice for the game, saying, “It’s attracting extra and quicker athletes, which is reflective of the game generally. I’m of the opinion that it’s a great factor that the “mountain” and “path” occasions have been mixed, as the game does endure from being pulled in lots of instructions, beneath completely different, competing federations.”
On the opposite finish of the Path World Championships expertise spectrum is Schide, who competed for the primary time this 12 months after greater than a decade of racing ultras. She says, “One of many causes I focused WMTRC in Canfranc was as a result of I knew that there could be a aggressive subject there, and perhaps it might entice barely completely different individuals than I might have run in opposition to at UTMB.” She’d additionally run into scheduling points, having positioned her 12 months’s foremost concentrate on the Hardrock 100 and felt that UTMB could be too near put collectively one other high quality efficiency. Schide appreciated the occasion’s potential to host all kinds of runners, saying, “I additionally felt prefer it was a cool option to deliver completely different runners collectively. We’re usually at completely different occasions in numerous elements of the world, and even when we comply with different elements of the game, it’s fairly uncommon we’re really all racing in the identical place.”
Group Malaysia celebrates on the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
With its progress and more and more aggressive fields, the occasion has gained credibility with every version. For some, like Puppi, the possibility to symbolize their nation has all the time held the Path World Championships as a worthy endeavor. Puppi says, “The credibility has all the time been there. For me, the championships have all the time been necessary, and it’s all the time been a precedence in my calendar. Personally, if I needed to make a listing of the highest, most high-profile occasions in our sport, the Path World Championships, for positive, could be in my high 5.”
The deeper fields have led to an elevated media presence on the WMTRC, an element that’s drawing extra eyes and a spotlight to the occasions. Puppi feels that elevated media is nice for the occasion, “From a business standpoint, extra media, extra communication, and extra involvement from the manufacturers ensures the occasion shouldn’t be solely related for the elites but additionally for the broader basic public. Leaving apart the elite, sponsored runners, that’s the place the worth actually can develop for the followers of the game, and for manufacturers to assist encourage people who find themselves not even into path working, however who might doubtlessly uncover path working because of the world championships.”
Scheduling Issues
With off-road working changing into more and more well-liked, there’s a rising variety of races vying for the eye of high athletes. Whereas this is a matter for all athletes, it’s particularly related for the long-distance specialists who should rigorously schedule their peak efforts all year long, solely competing at their high degree two to a few occasions yearly. The proximity of the WMTRC to the UTMB World Collection Finals a month earlier this 12 months actually required decisions by many athletes. Coaching for and working a race like UTMB a month earlier than the Path World Championships wasn’t seen as appropriate, so many longer-distance athletes, together with Walmsley and Adam Peterman, ran the shorter CCC or OCC races as an alternative. Puppi additionally ran CCC, and gained. Others, like France’s Vincent Bouillard, who gained the 2024 UTMB, skipped the occasion solely to concentrate on the Path World Championships.
Francesco Puppi profitable the 2025 CCC. Photograph: UTMB
Shorter-distance racers are sometimes in a position to get well extra shortly and race extra regularly, however their peak efforts should even be thought-about within the area of a 12 months. Lots of the main runners within the WMRA World Cup, in addition to the Skyrunner World Collection, that are usually shorter races, have been on the WMTRC. Frédéric Tranchand (France), Manuel Merillas (Spain), and Luca Del Pero (Italy), all of whom featured prominently within the Skyrunner World Collection, positioned within the high six within the Path World Championships Quick Path occasion.
Manuel Merillas working to second place on the 2025 Path World Championships Quick Path. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Discovering a spot within the race calendar that works for each the short- and long-distance specialists is extremely difficult. Schide says, “ I feel crucial factor for conserving the Path World Championships an attractive choice to essentially the most variety of individuals potential is to maintain it away from these key weekends that exist already within the calendar, just like the final weekend of June, when we’ve the Western States 100, the Damaged Arrow Skyrace, Lavarado Extremely, the Mont Blanc 90k, and Marathon du Mont Blanc. Then additionally, conserving it away from the UTMB weekend.” Schide goes on to supply some choices and their professionals and cons: “Both putting it early within the season, like Might, which is hard for individuals dwelling within the mountains the place it snows within the winter, and it’s exhausting to coach outdoor, or later within the 12 months when the [race calendar] is much less crowded.”
Puppi, who gained CCC a month earlier than WMTRC, says of the scheduling, “This 12 months was not splendid. I feel it may be a little bit later within the season, mid-October perhaps and even November.”
Closing Ideas
The WTMRC present a venue for off-road runners from all over the world to come back collectively and compete on a worldwide stage that’s distinctive to all others on the racing calendar. Though mountain and path working have their star athletes who can present headlines, these races will not be nearly them. Runners of all skills, from all nations, together with these ending properly down within the subject, generate curiosity in their very own international locations, offering that priceless trickle-down impact that evokes the subsequent technology of path runners. For almost all of rivals on the championships, it’s nonetheless extra about fulfilling a childhood dream of representing their nation than ending on the rostrum or claiming a bonus from a sponsor.
The 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships can present the inspiration for the subsequent technology of path runners. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
The continuing dilemma for all competing organizations and governing our bodies is making an attempt to maintain these easy desires in athletes whereas hanging a steadiness between the truth of the commercialism wanted to develop and maintain the game. For the three athletes interviewed for this text, it’s evident that, regardless of their success, all of them nonetheless possess a pure love of working, and though there may be an acceptance of the fashionable commercialization of the game, making an attempt to steadiness that actuality whereas not shedding the virtually childlike pleasure of working for its personal sake will all the time be necessary to them.
With the 2027 WTMRC scheduled for Cape City in 2027, it’s as much as the organizing committee and federations to create an occasion that may proceed to construct on the momentum generated up to now three editions. It’s additionally arguably as much as manufacturers, business occasion organizers, and different stakeholders to help federated competitions like these, the success of which will be thought-about a key element of a totally fledged sport.
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Group Ukraine on the opening ceremony of the 2025 World Mountain and Path Working Championships. Photograph: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
