Hitting heights: Scots land fine second in Mountain Run Six Nations event

Sunday 25th May 2025

Scotland finished in an excellent second place overall in the first Six Nations Cup at the WMRA Trofeo and Vertical World Cup races in Italy over the weekend.

Only the host nation headed the visiting Scots, with the Italians demonstrating their love of mountain running via the support on the hill and the atmosphere and the prize ceremonies.

Italy’s men were dominate on day one for the VK (4km 1000m) where all three finishers finished in the top four. Robbie Simpson led the Scottish men home in 13th place overall, 36.46, with Rory Abernethy (running for Ochils) just one second behind. Thomas Hilton was second counter and first U20 and Ross Gollan was the final counter in 26th.

In thewomen’s event, Scotland dominated with Scout Adkin having a brilliant run to finish second, 39.23, Kirsty Dickson ran strongly to take sixth and Cat MacDonald was 18th. Isla Paterson in her first VK finished 2nd U20 and 20th overall.

The combined scores put Scotland in second place behind Italy.

On Sunday the athletes raced on an up-and-down course. The finish order from day one changed considerably due to the fast undulating 10km run in before hitting a steep climb and descending to the finish.

Again, Scout had a superb race to finish only seven seconds behind the winner in 1.46.20. Our women didn’t fare so well on this tough course with Cat finishing in 18th and Kirsty in 26th putting them in third place for day two.

Robbie Simpson returned in style to the classic up-and-down race finishing in 8th place, 1.36.50. Both Ross and Ewan Brown had steady climbs and gained several places on the descent to finish in 13th and 27th respectively. This put the men in third place for the day and Scotland in fourth overall for the day.

Combining the scores from the Vertical and Trofeo races Italy were dominate to win with 56 points and Scotland held onto second from France with 87 and 93 points respectively.

With two second places to her name Scout still leads this year’s WMRA World Cup series after the opening three races.

Many congratulations to all the athletes on a strong team effort in Italy and to their families, coaches and clubs.

Thanks to Angela Mudge for reports, pictures