It’s here, we’ve finally made it into the top three of this year’s TROY awards! The athletes in third position are two of the best short-distance athletes in the world. From Kenya, both of these runners brought us some of the most exciting battles in the trail world in 2024 – something we hope repeats as we head into 2025. If you’ve missed any of the countdown thus far, you can find them here: fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth.
In third position this year we have On and Athletica Saluzzo’s Joyce Muthoni Njeru and On and Run2gether’s Patrick Kipngeno.
At just 27 years old, Joyce Muthoni Njeru has managed to quickly find herself ascending to the top of the podium in trail running. While she picked up and won her first national mountain running title in 2017, she wouldn’t get the chance to race in the World Mountain Running Association (WMRA) World Cup until 2021. A blessing or a curse we can’t be sure, but she has been dominant on that circuit ever since winning the WMRA title in four consecutive years since her debut. So why is this her first time landing in our TROY Top Ten? Despite our best efforts not every series gets the same shine, and we’ve worked hard over the past three years to appropriately rank and weight these athletes’ efforts. In addition to that, 2024 marked Joyce’s move to compete in the Golden Trail World Series (GTWS) – suddenly putting her on the same start line month after month with the best of the best (with best-in-class media going alongside it). Spoiler alert, she won that series too.
Are you ready for a dizzying stat? In 2024, Joyce raced sixteen times, winning ten of those events and never finishing worse than twelfth. That’ll be a big WOW from us. From top to bottom Joyce took home wins at; the Four Sisters Mountain Trail (GTWS), Broken Arrow Skyrace VK (WMRA), Broken Arrow Skyrace 26km (Course Record, WMRA), Thyon-Dixence, Trofeo Nasego (WMRA), Headlands 27km (GTWS), Mammoth Trail Fest (Course Record, GTWS), Šmarna Gora Race (WMRA), Val Bregaglia Trail, and the GTWS Final Prologue. In Addition to that, she took fourth in the Kobe Trail GTWS race, twelfth at Sierre-Zinal, and third in the GTWS Grand Finals race to close out her season. From getting to meet Joyce at Broken Arrow in June to cheering her on throughout the course of her season we are truly wowed by her fierce racing and consistency over seven months of racing. Joyce, you impress us and we can’t wait until the spring to get to watch you throw down again.
While we’ve written about the talented Kenyan runner and two-time World Champion, Patrick Kipngeno, several times over the last three years, we can’t believe it’s taken this many goes to get him in the TROY Top Ten. The third time’s the charm, or perhaps it’s an extra big thank you to the Sub Hub Podcast for shining a spotlight on the fast and furious side of the sport – either way, it’s about time this champion landed on our podium! In case you need a refresher, since Patrick arrived on the World Mountain Running Association World Cup in 2022, he’s been almost untouchable, rarely losing, and even more rarely finishing off the podium. During that time, he has claimed back-to-back World Championship titles in the Classic Uphill race and has finished second and fifth in the Classic Up & Down World Championship event. Finally while he has yet to win the overall title of the Golden Trail World Series (GTWS) he has finished second that last two years consecutively. What a powerhouse!
Much like his fellow Kenyan highlighted above, Patrick raced fifteen times in 2024, winning nine times and never finishing off the podium. Color us impressed – full stop. Similar to Joyce, Patrick also split his season to compete in both the GTWS and the WMRA World Cup, but that’s not all… sandwiched in the middle, he also managed to snag wins at the Cirque Series Brighton and A’Basin events. Backing up, Patrick notched wins at the Kobe Trail (GTWS), Four Sisters Mountain Trail (GTWS), Broken Arrow VK and 26km (WMRA), Vertical Nasego (WMRA), Trogeo Nasego (WMRA), and the Val Bredgalia Trail race. Rounding out his podium finishes, Patrick placed second at Mammoth Trail Fest (GTWS) and went on to place third at Sierre-Zinal (GTWS/WMRA), Headlands 27km (GTWS), the KV Chiavenna Lagunc (WMRA), and both the prologue and Grand Final at the GTWS Trail Finals in October. Finishing on the podium that many times in one season isn’t luck – it’s a whole lot of hard work and dedication from one of the best our sport has seen, something we are consistently blown away by and something we don’t see changing any time soon. Bravo Patrick, see you Tahoe in June!
Joyce and Patrick left lasting impressions on us this year. We know they will both be sure to keep us on the edge of our seats and are more than a little excited that the World Championships are back again in the fall of 2025. Which two athletes find themselves in our “runner-up” position? Come back tomorrow morning to find out!