Day three of the Valsir Mountain World Cup Finalissima at Sky Gran Canaria proved to a be dramatic and fitting end to what has been a superb season. It all started in mid-June, in Broken Arrow, Lake Tahoe, USA and ended on this demanding, rugged coastal route. There’s been a long list of winners in that time that includes runners all over the world, but always there’s been underlying theme – watch out the Kenyans are ready to pounce.

And so it proved once more on super Sunday, the final race of a fabulous Valsir Mountain Running World Cup and overall mountain running year. Originally billed as super fast race with lots of downhill, the race was a much quicker 22km, reduced in altitude because of local conditions and the danger of forest fires, which, however resulted in a fantastic fast Classic Mountain Running course.

Kenya’s Philemon Kiriago and countrywoman Joyce Njeru continued the theme they had been enjoying all season and quite simply dominated proceedings from the gun. Run over two laps, both Kiriago and Njeru employed similar tactics on what was another hot Canarian day and seized control as early as the first 5km.