Ruth Croft and Jim Walmsley take the top titles at Trail Running Awards

Ruth Croft and Jim Walmsley have been named as the 2025 Athletes of the Year in the second edition of the Trail Running Awards.

New Zealander Croft made history in Chamonix at the end of August when she became the first woman to win UTMB’s big three finals by claiming a famous triumph in the blue riband Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc.

American star Walmsley meanwhile has made the most of a season that has been somewhat disrupted by a knee injury, winning OCC at the UTMB finals before going on to land the Long Trail World Championships in Canfranc a month later.

The duo succeed the inaugural winners Katie Schide and Elhousine Elazzaoui.

Incredible strength in depth

The awards were organised by Mile & Stone in Annecy.

A press release from them revealed that the decision of the jury was unanimous in favour of Croft ahead of Schide (2025 winner of Hardrock 100 and the Long Trail World Championships), Blandine L’Hirondel (Diagonale des Fous), Abby Hall (Western States) and Tove Alexandersson (Short Trail World Championships).

Croft won CCC in 2015 and OCC in both 2018 and 2019 while last year she was runner-up to Schide in a record-breaking edition of the 174km UTMB before going one better this summer.

“Thank you for recognising my performances throughout these years and not just my UTMB victory,” she explained in a video message sent from home in New Zealand. “It’s true that this project lasted ten years. The ambition to win it one day started in 2015, when I first came to Chamonix for the CCC. It was a long journey to get here.”

Modesty from Walmsley

Walmsley told the gathering in Annecy: “In some ways, I feel like I’m finishing the year empty-handed, without a big win at UTMB or Western States, which are usually my major goals.”

But he deserves huge credit for coming out on top in a vintage Chianti Ultra Trail by UTMB in March against Kilian Jornet and Vincent Bouillard as the three previous winners of UTMB went head to head.

He then focussed on the Long Trail World Championships but still managed to win the 61km OCC en route to that.

Baptiste Chassagne (Diagonale des Fous), Kilian Jornet (States of Elevation), Ludovic Pommeret (defending his title at Hardrock) and Frédéric Tranchand (short-distance trail world champion) were next in the pecking order.

Many other awards were handed out and you can watch the ceremony in full via the video embed below.