M20-29 Ascent: Kiriago surges to the top — barely

• Philemon Ombogo Kiriago won the M20-29 Ascent in 25:07 (11:33/mi), improving dramatically from 7th in this race in 2024 (39:19 — a different course length) and backing it up after a 2nd-place finish in the 23K earlier in the weekend.
• Just 5 seconds covered the top three: Kiriago (25:07), Roberto Delorenzi (25:12), and Remi Leroux (25:15) — but the final push to the finish reshuffled the order.
• Delorenzi ran the 5th-fastest Snow King→Finish split among the men, the strongest closing kick of the podium trio; Kiriago's was 11th and Leroux's 9th — meaning Delorenzi was the one gaining ground at the end, but Kiriago's earlier lead held.
• Lukas Ehrle, at just 20 years old, claimed 5th in 26:16 — completing a busy weekend that also included a 5th-place finish in the 23K.

Philemon Ombogo Kiriago's weekend deserves its own headline. The 22-year-old from Naivasha, Kenya ran the 23K and placed 2nd among the men, then turned around and won the M20-29 Ascent outright. His 25:07 here represents a stunning leap from 7th in this same race in 2024 — whatever he ran on that prior course, the trajectory is unmistakably upward. At nearly 8,000 feet, thin air at Palisades Tahoe makes every second earned, and Kiriago earned plenty.

The podium fight was genuinely tight. Delorenzi (25:12, 11:35/mi) and Leroux (25:15, 11:37/mi) were right on Kiriago's heels, and the Snow King→Finish segment told a nuanced story: Delorenzi closed with the fastest finishing split of the three, moving from 12th to 8th among the men on that stretch. Leroux, who also raced the 23K this weekend (10th among men) and finished 6th in this Ascent in 2024, ran the 9th-fastest closing split — moving in the right direction but not quite enough to close the gap.

Behind the podium, Jeret Gillingham (4th, 26:00) and Henri Aymonod (6th, 26:31) gave the top of the field some breathing room, while local Bodhi Gross of South Lake Tahoe finished 7th in 26:51 — home-course familiarity on full display. The M20-29 field of 47 was deep and international, with athletes from Kenya, Switzerland, Canada, Italy, Ecuador, and across the United States making for one of the more cosmopolitan fields on the mountain.