Borderer Scout Adkin doubles lead at top of World Mountain-Running Association world cup rankings with two top-five finishes in France
Borderer Scout Adkin continued her defence of the World Mountain-Running Association’s world cup with two top-five finishes in France at the weekend, more than doubling her lead in the competition’s rankings.
The Peebles 31-year-old was female runner-up, and 39th all together, in Saturday’s 5.9km uphill race at at Briancon in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region in 49:27, less than a minute behind winner Christel Dewalle, and fifth, and 38th all told, in Sunday’s 14km up-and-down follow-up in 1:19:34.
Both Vauban Mountain Trail races were won by French runners, the former by Dewalle, 42, in 48:40 and the latter by Nelie Clement in 1:15:58.
Saturday’s round nine involved 1,121m of ascent and Sunday’s round ten included 994m.
Moorfoot Runners senior Adkin is now 83 points clear at the top of the competition’s leaderboard, up from 39 going into the weekend.
Ten rounds in and with five to go, including a two-legged final, she’s on 268 points.
Her closest challenger is now Kenya’s Valentine Jepkoech Rutto, up from fifth place on 85 points to second on 185 after finishing as seventh woman on Saturday in 52:34 and third on Sunday in 1:17:20.
Fellow Kenyan Joyce-Muthoni Njeru drops from second place to third with 145 points after finishing as tenth woman on Saturday in 53:10 and second on Sunday in 1:17:11.
Adkin – world cup runner-up to Njeru in 2023 prior to winning by a whisker last year with 339, just ahead of Njeru’s 338 – is one of only two Britons in the leaderboard’s top ten, the other being Warwickshire’s Elle Twentyman, fifth with 86 points.
The Borderer’s latest top-five finishes follow a first in round one of the cup in Romania at the start of May, two seconds in Italy later that same month, a first in round four in Poland in June and two seconds in China in July.
Next up are two rounds in Italy this coming Saturday and Sunday, at Premana in Lombardy – one of 8km and one of 32km – and three in August, one at Zinal in Switzerland and a two-legged final in Slovenia at Kamnik and Ljubljana.
Adkin’s younger brother Jacob, 29, was also in action at Briancon, France’s loftiest city, finishing third on Saturday in 41:53 and eighth on Sunday in 1:08:17.
The Adkins weren’t the region’s only representatives either as their Moorfoot clubmate Thomas Hilton was among a field of 146 on Saturday and 184 on Sunday, placing as top junior in both and 32nd overall in the former in 47:43 and 22nd in the latter in 1:13:42.
Kenya’s Richard Omaya Atuya was winner overall on Saturday in 40:40 and fourth on Sunday in 1:06:02, with his countryman Michael Selelo Saoli coming out on top on day two in 1:04:52.
The latter is fourth on the men’s leaderboard with 139 points and the latter tenth with 81. Fellow Kenyan Paul Machoka, fourth on Saturday in 42:23 and sixth the day after in 1:07:01, is top with 233.