The Three Lakes Marathon festival welcomes the Rollercoaster 21 on 19 September,
with category standings and overall World Cup positions at stake.

After travelling through Portugal, China, Spain, the United States, Austria, France, Switzerland and Italy, the WMRA Mountain Running World Cup reaches Poland for race 14 of the 2026 season. On Saturday, 19 September, the Three Lakes Marathon festival will host the final race of the Long Distance category on the Rollercoaster 21 course.

From the Transvulcania Half Marathon to Broken Arrow, Sierre-Zinal and Trofeo Nasego, the Long Distance season has already taken runners through four very different mountain-running races. The last one comes in the Beskids, where repeated climbs, technical descents and constant changes of rhythm will decide the final category standings.

Poland will close the Long Distance competition, but not the World Cup itself. The season will continue in Canada in October with the Uphill and Up & Down finals and the final decisions in the overall standings.

The Three Lakes Marathon takes place in the western Beskid Mały mountains, with the Soła River running between wooded slopes and a landscape shaped by both nature and local history. Stone shepherds’ huts and a former forest amphitheatre remain part of the area’s heritage, while Mount Żar has become an important centre for outdoor sport, attracting runners, cyclists and paragliders.

The festival itself grew from a simple request from runners. After taking part in the Frassati Mountain Run, many wanted more distances and more ways to discover the surrounding trails. That connection with the running community remains central to the event today.

As summer begins to give way to autumn, the World Cup now joins that wider festival atmosphere for its first visit to Rollercoaster 21.

The name gives a fair indication of what awaits.

Rollercoaster 21 covers 21.6km, with 1,511m of ascent and 1,543m of descent, starting at 10:00 in Międzybrodzie Bialskie and finishing at Porąbka stadium. There is little time on the course for runners to settle into a comfortable rhythm.

The opening three kilometres climb more than 500m towards Czupel, immediately putting pacing under pressure. From there, a demanding descent drops towards Czernichów before the course crosses the Soła River on a suspension bridge and begins building again towards Mount Żar.

One of the decisive sections could come on that ascent, where approximately 250m are gained in a single kilometre alongside the ski lift. Even then, the climbing is not finished. After descending towards Kozubnik, another short ascent interrupts the run towards Porąbka before the final approach to the stadium.

The challenge will not simply be how quickly the athletes can climb, but how well they can repeatedly change from climbing to descending and back again. An aggressive opening could be expensive later, particularly for anyone unable to recover on the descents, while runners who move efficiently downhill and still have enough strength when the road turns upwards again may find themselves gaining places deep into the race.

The Long Distance final brings together athletes with different objectives but the same immediate target: a strong result in Porąbka.

For some, the category standings remain very much in play. Others arrive with their attention also on the overall World Cup, knowing that Poland can strengthen their position before the final rounds in Canada. Alongside them are athletes capable of challenging for the race podium regardless of their position in the season-long competition.

Poland’s Urszula Paprocka and Matyssek Karol will have the chance to race a World Cup on home ground, while Natalie Beadle and Spain’s Marc Bernades Olle are among the other notable entries. With a course that rarely allows the field to settle, the final should leave plenty of room for the race to develop well beyond the opening climb.

After two fourth-place finishes this season, Arianna Dentis (ITA) arrives in Poland still chasing her first World Cup podium of 2026. She has been close at both Vauban Mountain Trail and Trofeo Nasego, and Rollercoaster 21 gives her another opportunity to turn that consistency into a place in the top three.

But this is far from a two-woman contest. Natalie Beadle (GBR) is another athlete with the potential to challenge for the podium, while the depth of the field means there should be little room for mistakes across a course as demanding as Rollercoaster 21.

Sara Willhoit (GBR) returns to Long Distance racing after already scoring at the Transvulcania Half Marathon earlier in the season. Poland gives her another chance to finish the category strongly while adding to an overall World Cup campaign that continues beyond this weekend.

Selina Burch (SUI), Ingrid Mutter (ROU) and Eden O’Dea (GBR) add further World Cup experience to the field. Together with Dentis and Willhoit, all women sit inside the overall World Cup top 30, giving the final another layer beyond the competition for the race podium itself.

Once the race begins, however, the standings will matter less than how the athletes handle the course. The opening ascent should begin separating the field, but Rollercoaster 21 offers few places where an early advantage can be considered safe. The descent, the crossing of the Soła and the hard climb towards Żar all offer opportunities for the order to change before the final kilometres into Porąbka.

Martin Nilsson (SWE) has one of the clearest World Cup objectives in the men’s field. He arrives ninth overall and fourth in the Long Distance standings with 56 points, 16 behind the current third-place total.

That leaves a Long Distance podium within reach, although the equation does not depend on Nilsson alone. He will need the result in Poland while also watching where his closest rivals finish.

The race itself brings plenty of competition beyond the category standings. Spain’s Marc Bernades Olle and Polish Matyssek Karol are among the athletes expected to place towards the front, while Finlay Grant (GBR) adds further strength to the field.

Andrew Thomas Douglas (GBR) and Luca Merli (ITA) arrive with the wider World Cup season still firmly in focus. Douglas sits inside the overall top 10 and Merli just outside it, making the points available in Poland important before both turn their attention towards the final races in Canada.

Gyorgy Szabolcs Istvan (ROU) and Oscar Subuh-Symons (GBR) are also inside the overall top 30, while Paul Knight (USA) returns to the Long Distance competition having already scored at Broken Arrow. Rollercoaster 21 gives Knight one final opportunity to improve his category position before those standings are closed for the season.

On a course with such frequent changes of terrain, however, positions on paper will only tell part of the story. The first climb may reveal who wants to dictate the race, but the repeated descents and ascents that follow should favour patience as much as aggression. By the time the athletes reach the later stages of the course, the strongest runner may be the one who has managed those changes best.

The World Cup travels from one mountain community to another, but the purpose extends beyond elite competition. Every stop offers a different landscape, culture and way of experiencing mountain running, made possible by the local communities who open their trails and welcome the athletes.

That comes with responsibility from everyone who uses those environments.

As the Long Distance season reaches its conclusion in Poland, Rollercoaster 21 offers both sides of that story: international competition at the highest level and another mountain landscape waiting to be discovered responsibly.

RACE INFORMATION AND COURSE DETAILS

https://www.maraton3jezior.com/en/rollercoaster/

DESTINATION AND FESTIVAL BACKGROUND

https://www.maraton3jezior.com/en/festival/

WMRA MOUNTAIN RUNNING WORLD CUP 2026 STANDINGS

https://www.wmra.info/wmra-world-cup/