World trail running culminated its top competition season with the Grand Final of the Golden Trail World Series (GTWS) 2025 in Ledro Sky Trentino (Italy).
The Italian event not only crowned the champions, but also sealed a historic close for the Spanish delegation, led by Sara Alonso who turned adversity into an overall triumph.
Sara Alonso's Epic Comeback: From the Broken Rib to the World Podium
The milestone of Sara Alonso (Asics) resonates with an unequalled personal epic.
The Basque runner suffered a serious setback in July when she was hit by a cow during a training session in the Catalan Pyrenees, an incident that caused her to fracture her sixth rib and forced her to miss key events in the summer.
The incident: The event was as unusual as it was dramatic, and forced the Zegama 2025 winner to take a weeks' break.
Alonso managed to return to racing with steely determination, and in the space of just four months, turned tragedy into resounding success: runner-up in the GTWS World Championship.
Regularity as a Weapon: A Spanish Trio at the Top
Spain's success is no coincidence, but the result of consistency in the eight demanding races on the circuit: Kobe Trail (Japan), Great Wall Race (China), Golfo dell'Isola Race (Italy), Zegama-Aizkorri (Spain), Broken Arrow Skyrace (USA), Tepec Trail (Mexico) and the Ledro Grand Final.
The presence of three Spanish athletes among the six best in the world is the best balance in the history of the Golden Trail World Series, a fact that consolidates Spain as a global power in middle distance trail running. To the 2nd place of Sara Alonso (Asics), we must add the 4th final position of Malen Osa (Salomon) and the 6th position of Rosa Lara (Compressport).
Absolute Dominance in the Men's Category
In the men's competition, Morocco's Elhousine Elazzaoui (Nnormal) retained his world title, closing a perfect season with 1000 points and a victory in the Ledro Grand Final. The men's podium was purely African, with Kenyans Patrick Kipngeno (2nd) and Philemon Kiriago (3rd).
As for the Spanish athletes, Fabián Venero (Salomon) managed to finish in the world Top-30 (27th), highlighting the difficulty of competing on a course dominated by the frenetic pace of the African runners.
🔗 Official Links and Links of Interest:
- Official Website Golden Trail World Series (Rankings 2025) 2025 – Rankings – World Series
- Short summary of the Trentino race
- 🏃♀️Sara Alonso 🇪🇸 en la Ledro Sky Trentino 🇮🇹 #shorts #gtws #trailrunning #saraalonso #trailrun – YouTube
- Una vaca embiste a la corredora que ganó Zegama entrenando en el Pirineo y la deja sin UTMB