Philemon Kiriago and Mădălina Florea Complete a Mountain-Racing Double at Sierre-Zinal

Philemon Kiriago and Mădălina Florea won the 53rd Sierre-Zinal on Saturday, and for each of them it was the second time this summer they had taken one of mountain running’s biggest prizes. In June the two won the Broken Arrow 23K in California, and on Saturday they did it again over the 31 kilometers (about 19 miles) from Sierre to Zinal in the Swiss Alps, a course that climbs about 2,200 meters (roughly 7,200 feet).

Kiriago, of Kenya, covered the course in 2:26:24 and held off his compatriot Patrick Kipngeno by 32 seconds. Michael Selelo Saoli was third in 2:29:36, giving Kenya a sweep of the men’s podium. It was the second year in a row that Kiriago won at Sierre-Zinal, and the second that Kipngeno came in a step behind him; in 2025 the gap was 23 seconds. Kiriago was almost two and a half minutes quicker than his winning time a year ago.

The course record, though, was never in danger. Kilian Jornet ran 2:25:35 here in 2019, taking the mark off Jonathan Wyatt, whose 2:29:12 had stood since 2003, and Kiriago finished 49 seconds short of it. The two fastest men on Saturday both ran inside 2:27, and Jornet’s record has survived another summer.

Florea, a Romanian who spent her first running career on the track, won the women’s race in 2:55:44, 46 seconds ahead of Caroline Kimutai of Kenya, who won here last year. Morven Goodrum was third in 2:57:12. Florea’s time was well outside the women’s record of 2:49:20, set in 2019 by Maude Mathys of Switzerland, so the women’s race turned on the winner, not the clock.

Florea came to the mountains by a longer road than most of her rivals. She spent years on the track, won a Romanian title at 10,000m, and finished seventh in the half marathon at the 2016 European Championships before turning to trail and mountain racing, the same move a growing number of road and track runners have made. At Broken Arrow in June she moved past the defending champion on the long descent to the line; on Saturday she again beat a deep women’s field.

Both winners had already stood on the top step at Broken Arrow, worth $30,000 to each champion, where Kiriago also set a course record. Sierre-Zinal was the fifth of eight races in the Golden Trail World Series, a global circuit of mountain races that crowns a season champion, and it left the two with a matching pair of the summer’s marquee wins.

The series does not pause for long. Three races remain, in Japan and China through September, before the Muju Trail grand finale in South Korea on Oct. 24, where the season titles will be decided. Kiriago and Florea will start among the favorites.