Hitting heights: Scotland mountain runners impress in Italy

Tuesday 27th October 2026

From Andy Douglas in Italy

Unlike the stormy weather experienced back home, conditions over the weekend in Morbegno, Italy, for the 69th Trofeo Vanoni and 43rd Vanoni Femminile were perfect for mountain running.

Scotland were this year were represented by three teams. Fast times were expected and athletes across the board didn’t disappoint.

First up on Sunday morning, the women’s team tackled the short and sharp 5km up & down loop that had 248m of ascent and descent.

Only two women comprise of each team with a typical winning time in around 45 minutes, so getting off to a strong start is vital and that’s exactly what Scotland’s first leg runner Hania Czebreszuk did.

The U20 athlete, who still has another year in this age group, used her recent experience of competing for GB in the last European and World Championships to battle her way to the leading group making it to the top of the course in fourth place.

Holding her nerve in the fast and tricky descent, Hania handed over in sixth and posted the second fastest junior leg time of the day.

Scotland’s second leg runner, Grace Pow, fresh from helping her club Carnethy HRC to victory at the UK Fell Relay Champs the previous weekend, set off confidently and within the first 2km had already brought the team up to second place.

Although the Snowden Race team had built up a healthy lead after an impressive first leg from the fastest female of the day, Hannah Russell, Grace was always closing the gap on their final leg runner and hurtling down the descent gave her a comfortable gap from the chasing Italian team in third.

In addition to bringing the team home in second place in a time of 47min 30s, she also posted the second fastest overall leg time for this year’s race in 23min 09s.

An exceptional result for the Scotland team and earned them a highest ever placing in the event’s history.

Scotland Women in Italy – with brilliant performances from Hania and Grace

Later in the afternoon the men’s race kicked-off. No fewer than 168 teams lined up at the start for the three-stage 7.25km loop with 435m of ascent and descent.

Running Leg One for Scotland were Thomas Hilton for the senior team and Rowan Taylor for the U20s.

Reaching the highest point of the course in 21:41s, Thomas descended quickly to hand the senior team over in seventh. Rowan fought his way to hand over in 33rd.

A special mention to Matthew Knowles of Carnethy HRC who completed the course in an amazing time of 28:40 which not only gave him the fastest time of the day by 48s, but landed him second place on the all-time list of fastest lap times.

On Leg Two, Dan Dry had the task of trying to keep the senior team in the top 10, and despite a difficult lead up to the race battling injury and illness, he was able to keep them in the mix with other international teams representing Slovenia, North Wales and the Snowdon Race team.

Alex Dunlop in his secone outing at Trofeo Vanoni after debuting for the U20 team last year, posted the second fastest junior male time of the day taking a remarkable 19 places to bring the team up to 14th.

Scotland U20 Men

With both Scotland teams trying to climb higher up the rankings, final leg runners Harris Pagett and Lachlan Thomas (U20) set-off with their sights firmly on those teams ahead of them.

Harris held the team’s position all the way to the top of the climb, but having run the fastest descent time of the day in last years’ race, it was after this point where he was in his element.

Covering the 3.25km descent in an astonishing time of 8:46, Harris claimed second equal spot on the all-time fastest descents of the race route. This helped the Scotland senior men to an excellent seventh place finish.

Lachlan meanwhile continued the U20’s team drive up the rankings overtaking a further two teams.

Again another junior showcasing the quality we have in Scottish mountain running by running the third fastest junior male time of the day. This helped the team to an impressive 12th place overall and the first all-junior team with a gap of over 15min to the next one!

In addition to the three Scotland representative teams, we had teams from Edinburgh University (23rd in the women’s race, 17th in the men’s race) and Carnethy HRC (2nd in the men’s race).

Finlay Todd and Finn Lydon joined Matthew Knowles in claiming silver, just narrowly missing out on retaining their title from last year’s event to Italian winners SA Valchiese.