Though the Transvulcania weekend has by no means been simply in regards to the Ultramarathon, the 2026 Transvulcania Vertical Kilometer and Half Marathon step up in competitiveness, too. Each races are a part of this yr’s Mountain Operating World Cup, bringing an internationally aggressive discipline to the shorter races on the Canary Islands.
The 2025 Transvulcania Half Marathon males’s podium (l-to-r): 2. Sergio Álvarez, 1. Luca Del Pero, and three. David Osanz. Álvarez and Osanz return this yr. Picture: Transvulcania/Van Marty
The Vertical Kilometer (VK) goes first on Thursday, Might 7, at 5 p.m. native time (Western European Summer time Time), or 10 a.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time, on a course that climbs 1,164 meters (3,820 toes) and descends 102 meters (334 toes) over 7.28 kilometers (4.52 miles). Prize cash runs 5 deep, with 800 Euro going to the winners.
Two days later, the Half Marathon runs on Saturday, Might 9, on a 24.8-kilometer (15.4 miles) course with 2,097 meters (6,880 toes) of climbing. The race begins at 7:30 a.m. native time (Western European Summer time Time), which is 12:30 a.m. U.S. Mountain Daylight Time. Prize cash matches the VK, once more with 800 Euro for first.
The races would be the yr’s fifth and sixth Mountain Operating World Cup races, and sequence regulars like Kenya’s Joyce Njeru and Philemon Kiriago will look to double up on the factors and prize cash for the sequence.
Due to the World Mountain Operating Affiliation for supporting iRunFar’s 2026 Transvulcania VK and Half Marathon protection.
iRunFar might be on La Palma protecting the racing this weekend.
You’ll want to additionally try our in-depth 2026 Transvulcania Ultramarathon preview.
Learn on to see who’s racing.
2026 Transvulcania Vertical Kilometer and Half Marathon Ladies’s Preview
Ladies’s High Contenders
Nearly the entire prime runners are anticipated to double up and race each the Thursday VK and the Saturday Half Marathon.
It was a superb begin to 2026 for Kenya’s Ruth Gitonga. She received the yr’s first Mountain Operating World Cup race, the São Brás Cross Traditional Up and Down occasion, in Portugal in April. Final yr, Gitonga was second on the World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down race. If she’s lively within the World Cup this yr, she may be the general favourite, and he or she ought to place nicely at each Transvulcania races.
Ruth Gitonga on her option to ending second on the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down race. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Kenya’s Joyce Njeru was fourth within the 2025 Mountain Operating World Cup, and he or she’s already raced twice this yr. Njeru was second within the 2026 Mountain Operating World Cup Changping Beijing Uphill and received the Changping Beijing Traditional Up and Down race, as nicely. In 2025, she raced in each the Mountain Operating World Cup and Golden Path World Sequence. She was fourth within the World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down race, ninth at Sierre-Zinal, and received the Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k. She excels in up-and-down races greater than in purely uphill races. Count on her to complete increased within the Half Marathon than within the VK.
Joyce Njeru, the 2025 Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k ladies’s winner. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Philaries Kisang from Kenya is a real uphill specialist. She’ll probably be Gitonga’s closest competitors within the VK and can probably problem for a podium spot within the Half Marathon too. Kisang was second on the 2023 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race in Austria, however solely 14th in that very same race in 2025 in Spain. Kisang is greater than able to operating each uphill and downhill, as proven by her win on the Trofeo Nasego 21k in 2025 and fourth-place end on the 2024 Sierre-Zinal.
Philaries Kisang, the 2025 Vertical Nasego ladies’s winner. Picture: World Mountain Operating Affiliation/Marco Gulberti
Italy’s Camilla Magliano has hit the entire Mountain Operating World Cup stops to this point this yr. She was eighth within the yr’s first Mountain Operating World Cup race in Portugal, after which she was fourth at each the Uphill and Traditional races in China. Earlier than that, Magliano had 2026 wins at Andersen Marathon Path in Italy and the Istria 42k in Croatia, and he or she was fourth on the Lavaredo 50k in 2025 and seventh on the 2024 OCC.
Camilla Magliano, the 2024 World Masters Mountain Operating Championships Uphill ladies’s winner. Picture: WMRA/Marco Gulberti
Spain’s Silvia Lara was second finally yr’s Transvulcania VK and third within the Half Marathon. She was additionally sixth on the Half Marathon in 2024. Lara doesn’t appear to race a lot, however when she does, she tends to finish up close to the entrance of the sphere.
Extra Quick Ladies
Ruth Aldea has raced virtually completely in her residence nation of Spain for the final two years. She was fifth at each the 2025 Transvulcania Half Marathon and the 2025 Val d’Aran 16k. She is just racing the Transvulcania Half Marathon.
Like a couple of others on the checklist, Spain’s Maria Benito raced each the Transvulcania VK and Half Marathon in 2025 and returns for one more go this yr. In 2025, she was fourth within the VK and sixth within the Half Marathon. This yr, she’s received the Reventón El Paso 17k.
In contrast to everybody else on this checklist who’s doubling up on the VK and the Half Marathon, Spain’s Júlia Font will symbolize the host nation within the VK and the Marathon. Font was fifth earlier this yr on the Chianti 46k and received the Extremely Pirineu 42k in each 2024 and 2023. She’s proven success at quite a lot of distances starting from shorter skyraces to 50k occasions.
Júlia Font, the 2024 Gorbeia Suzien Skyrace ladies’s winner. Picture: Skyrunner World Sequence
Pauline Girardet has an extended checklist of short-course leads to her residence nation of France and is just racing the half-marathon distance at Transvulcania. High performances embrace second-place runs on the 2025 EcoTrail Paris 35k and the 2025 MCC. She was sixth on the 2023 Mont Blanc 23k.
Spain’s Estela Guerra was fifth on the 2025 Transvulcania VK and eleventh on the 2024 Transvulcania Half Marathon. She’s solely racing the VK this yr.
A ski mountaineering winter Olympian for Australia, Lara Hamilton was simply exterior of the highest 10 finally yr’s Damaged Arrow Skyrace 23k.
Spanish runner Moana Lilly Kehres was sixth finally yr’s Transvulcania VK and fourth within the Half Marathon. She was additionally sixteenth on the Zegama Marathon in 2024.
In late April 2026, Romania’s Ingrid Mutter was ninth on the Mountain Operating World Cup Changping Beijing Uphill race in China and eleventh within the Up and Down occasion. Going again to 2018, she was Twelfth on the world-class Zegama Marathon and eighth on the 2017 World Mountain Operating Lengthy Distance Championships. Mutter raced principally in Romania in 2025 and moreover had a Twelfth-place end on the Italian Lavaredo 50k.
New run2gether staff member Jedidah Sang ran her first race exterior Kenya in March 2026, the place she was second on the Madrid Half Marathon in 1:09. These might be her second and third races exterior of Kenya. Alongside Gitonga, Kisang, and Njeru, it could possibly be a Kenyan sweep of the highest 4 spots in each races.
The U.Okay.’s Sara Willhoit was fifth and ninth on the two 2026 Mountain Operating World Cup races in China in April 2026. She was 18th on the Acantilados del Norte race in Spain earlier this yr, and eighth on the 2025 Trofeo Nasego 21k.
2026 Transvulcania Males’s Vertical Kilometer and Half Marathon Preview
Males’s High Contenders
With a couple of exceptions, most of this group may also race each the VK and Half Marathon disciplines.
Kenya’s Philemon Kiriago is without doubt one of the greatest on this planet and will run away with the Half Marathon crown. He received the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down race and was seventeenth within the Uphill race on the identical championships. Kiriago received Sierre-Zinal in each 2023 and 2025 and certainly has a title protection there excessive on his summer time precedence checklist.
Philemon Kiriago (Kenya), the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships Up and Down males’s champion. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Richard Omaya Atuya from Kenya can climb with one of the best and needs to be close to or on the entrance of the VK. He was second on the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race, and that got here after 2025 wins on the Vauban Mountain Path Uphill and Vertical Nasego races.
Richard Omaya Atuya of Kenya takes second on the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Spain’s Daniel Osanz will solely race the Half Marathon. He received the race in 2024 and was third in 2025. Osanz had an important 2023 with a fifth-place end on the Mammoth 26k and a seventh-place run up the Pikes Peak Ascent, each within the U.S. If he has any of that 2023 type, he could possibly be on the rostrum within the Half Marathon.
Daniel Osanz, the 2022 Canfranc Canfranc VK males’s winner. Picture: Ruben Fueyo
Uphill specialist Andrea Elia from Italy will solely race the VK. He was eighth on the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships Uphill race and will problem for the VK win right here. In 2024, he received the Mountain Operating World Cup Finals VK.
Andrea Elia, the 2024 Kilometro Verticale Lagunc champion. Picture: iRunFar/Meghan Hicks
Spain’s Sergio Álvarez was second within the Half Marathon in 2025 and sixth in 2024. This yr’s race will go faster, however Álvarez was solely 12 seconds behind race winner Luca Del Pero final yr and over a minute higher than third-place Daniel Osanz. Can he maintain that end spot in opposition to World Cup competitors?
Extra Quick Males
Final yr’s third-place finisher within the Transvulcania Ultramarathon was Manuel Anguita of Spain. Later in 2025, he was twentieth on the Path World Championships Lengthy Path. He’s simply entered within the VK, and it is a very brief course for his typical racing.
Álvaro Escuela from Spain was seventh on the 2025 Transvulcania Half Marathon and third on the occasion in 2024.
Be careful for France’s Anthony Felber within the VK and Half Marathon. His prime race final yr was tenth on the Marathon de Mont Blanc, and again in 2023, he was sixth at OCC.
Spain’s Arezki Habibi has been across the prime 10 right here the final two years. In 2025, he was seventh within the VK and thirteenth within the Half Marathon, and in 2024, he was eleventh within the Half Marathon. This yr, he was third on the Reventón Path 17k.
A 2:12 marathoner in 2017, Tyler McCandless has moved to the paths. He was a part of Group USA for the uphill race on the 2025 World Mountain Operating Championships and was additionally seventh on the Changping Beijing Traditional Up and Down race in China in April 2026. Earlier in April 2026, he was solely ninth on the Gorge Waterfalls 30k.
Tyler McCandless on his option to fourth place on the 2025 Damaged Arrow VK and a spot on Group USA for the Uphill race at World Mountain Operating Championships. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi
Sweden’s Martin Nilsson received the 2025 Tatra Skymarathon and was seventh on the 2025 Path World Championships Brief Path. He was additionally sixth at Sierre-Zinal the identical yr.
Martin Nilsson, the 2025 Hochkönig Skyrace males’s winner. Picture: Skyrunner World Sequence
Ephantus Njeri is one other Kenyan with the potential to do nicely. He was ninth on the 2025 Pitz Alpine Golden Path World Sequence race and third on the Vauban Mountain Path 14k.
Antoine Thiriat from France completed ninth on the 2024 Transvulcania Ultramarathon. He sometimes races longer than the half marathon for which he’s signed up right here, and was third on the 2025 Les Templiers 80k. He was seventh on the 2024 OCC.
Name for Feedback
- Will anybody problem the Kenyan runners on this yr’s Mountain Operating World Cup?
- What different storylines in these races will you be following?
