Zegama-Aizkorri turns 25 on Sunday, and the most iconic mountain marathon in the world opens the 2026 Golden Trail World Series with a start list that confirms the race's place at the centre of the trail calendar. The 42-kilometre, 2,736-metre Basque alpine marathon rolls off at 9 am local time on Sunday 17 May, with the men's and women's elite races set against the longest-form course on the GTWS schedule and the most demanding mountain crowd in the sport.
The headline name remains Kilian Jornet. The NNormal-sponsored Catalan, the only athlete who has competed in the inaugural edition of the GTWS in 2018 and continues to race the series, is back at a venue where he has already collected 11 victories and where his Sunday-morning duels with the European specialists are part of trail running folklore. Jornet has spent the spring building toward a Western States 100 mile attempt next month, but Zegama remains a fixture on his calendar and his comparative pace work over the past three weeks suggests he is sharp enough to challenge at the front.
The defending champions both return. Morocco's Elhousine Elazzaoui, who took the men's title in 2025 in 3 hours 53 minutes, comes in off Skyrunner World Series wins to start 2026 and starts as the marginal favourite. Italy's Davide Magnini, eighth at the Trail World Championships short trail in March, and Spain's Manuel Merillas, second at the same championships, both have unfinished business in Zegama. The women's field is led by Madalina Florea of Romania, the defending champion for Scott, and Spain's Sara Alonso, who won the race in 4 hours 27 minutes in 2024. Sweden's Tove Alexandersson, the dominant orienteer who has shown she can race trail at the highest level on her rare visits, looms as the most disruptive entrant in either field.
The 25th anniversary course is unchanged from 2025: an alpine loop that climbs Aizkorri-Aratz from Zegama up to the long Aizkorri ridge and back, with the celebrated finish gauntlet through the village still in place. Prize money runs ten deep with 3,000 euros for the winners and a bonus for course-record finishes, which the men's record holder Stian Angermund will be hoping to keep out of reach this weekend. Race organisers are projecting record spectator numbers along the upper sections of the course, with police road closures across the Goierri region in place from early Sunday morning.
For the GTWS, Sunday is the start of a season that will end on a new Grand Final in South Korea later in the year, with stops in Canada, Japan and across Europe before that. For Zegama, it is a milestone edition of a race that has shaped what mountain marathons look like for two and a half decades. The forecast for Sunday is currently clear and cool through the morning, with a small risk of thunderstorms over the high ground in the afternoon, although the leaders should be off the ridge before any weather arrives.