Borderer Scout Adkin still top of World Mountain-Running Association’s world cup leaderboard after two second places in China
Borderer Scout Adkin has tightened her grip on pole position on the World Mountain-Running Association’s world cup leaderboard with two second-place finishes in China at the weekend as she continues her defence of the title she won by a single point last year.
Adkin, of Peebles, was runner-up to Kenya’s Valentine Jepkoech Rutto at Chongli in Hebei Province on both Saturday and Sunday.
Rutto, 33, won Saturday’s uphill race in 40:59 and Sunday’s 21.9km up-and-down sequel in 1:55:43
Moorfoot Runners senior Adkin, 31, was second in 41:58 on Saturday, with Kenya’s Gloria Chebet third in 43:05, and Sunday’s other podium places went the same way, with the Borderer clocking 2:01:04 for 25th place overall and Chebet 2:04:52.
Eight rounds in and with seven to go, those two silver medals take Adkin’s points tally to 184, 39 clear of her nearest challenger, Kenya’s Joyce-Muthoni Njeru’s 145, with fellow Kenyans Philaries-Jeruto Kisang and Rutto respectively third on 100 and fifth on 85, sandwiching the USA’s fourth-placed Anna Gibson, also on 85.
She’s one of only two Britons in the leaderboard’s top ten, the other being Shropshire’s Sara Willhoit, ninth with 48 points.
Her two latest second places follow a first in round one of the cup in Romania at the start of May, two seconds in Italy later that same month and a first in round four in Poland in June.
Adkin won last year’s title with 339 points, one more than Njeru, 28, with Kisang third on 313, Finland’s Susanna Saapunki fourth on 219 and Chebet, the third of three Kenyans to make the top five, fifth on 155.
That was Adkin’s first world cup win after finishing as runner-up to Njeru in 2023.
Rounds nine and ten of this year’s cup follow in France, at Briancon in the Provence-Alpes-Cote d’Azur region, later this month, followed by another two rounds in Italy, at Premana in Lombardy, the weekend after and three in August, one at Zinal in Switzerland and a two-legged final in Slovenia at Kamnik and Ljubljana.
Kenya’s Michael Selelo Saoli won overall on Sunday in 1:38:19, with his countryman Paul Machoka, currently the series’ male front-runner, second in 1:39:38.
That followed a win for Germany’s Lukas Ehrle the day before in 35:13, a second ahead of Saoli.
Machoka is currently on 160 points, with fellow Kenyan Philemon Kiriago second on 156.