Merillas and Alonso win Dements and claim world series titles

Manuel Merillas and Sara Alonso won the Marató dels Dements on Saturday 7 November in Eslida, Castellón, and claimed the 2026 Skyrunner World Series titles. The SkyMasters final was held over 42 kilometres: Merillas won in 4:20:33 and Alonso in 5:30:38.

The two arrived at the event in different circumstances. Merillas started third in the overall standings and needed a combination of results to move up. Alonso was defending her lead and completed her debut season in the series with five victories, despite a fall on the first descent.

A route adapted after the wildfire

The race started at 7:30 in Eslida, which also hosted the finish. The route passed through Aín and crossed the Serra d’Espadà Natural Park, with an advertised 3,903 metres of ascent and the same amount of descent. It included nine major climbs and descents over steep, rocky terrain, reaching an altitude of 1,049 metres.

The route was changed after the July wildfire, which affected more than 10,000 hectares of the Serra d’Espadà. The organisers worked with the natural park and the environmental authorities to adapt it. In the race, 430 runners finished and 80 dropped out.

Merillas takes the lead and climbs the standings

The final awarded double points: 200 points to each winner. SkyMasters was added to the four best results of the season, and runners had to finish it to appear in the final standings.

José Manuel Quispe led the men’s standings with 478 points, followed by Frédéric Tranchand on 463 and Merillas on 447. The Spanish runner had to win and hope Quispe finished third or lower to take the title.

Tranchand was first through Barres at the 5.7-kilometre mark, with Merillas second. The Frenchman suffered back pain in the opening kilometres and, on the return to Eslida, at around the 10-kilometre mark, Merillas took the lead. He passed through Aín in 1:54:35, still with Tranchand his closest pursuer, and reached Íbola in 2:43:34, by which time the Frenchman had dropped to fourth.

Lucien Mermillon and Marcos Villamuera passed through Íbola in the same minute. The Frenchman then opened a gap on the technical descents and finished second in 4:32:41; Villamuera was third in 4:38:26. The Dements podium finish surprised the Spaniard, who explained that he had never tackled a race with so much elevation gain.

Tranchand finished seventh and Quispe eighth, results that allowed Merillas to move to the top of the overall standings. At the finish, the winner recalled the support he had received on the route: “I feel at home in this race. I kept hearing ‘Manu’ all the time and, whether or not it is part of the series, it is one of my favourite races,” said Manuel Merillas.

Alonso holds on to lead despite fall

Alonso had arrived at the final with 500 points and only needed to finish in the top four to secure the championship. She had previously won at Acantilados del Norte, Calamorro, Gorbeia Suzien and Sobrescobio. In Eslida, she led from the early checkpoints, although a blow to her ribs made her race more difficult.

At Aín, where she passed through in 2:22:09, she was 4:50 ahead of second-placed Elena Karanfiloska. The gap grew to 9:39 at the finish: the Macedonian runner finished in 5:40:17 and Greta García completed the podium in 5:45:35. García had passed through Íbola in fourth, behind Patricia Pineda, whom she overtook on the way to Pista Ereta to hold third place to the finish.

Alonso described the extent of her discomfort after crossing the finish line. “It was a very tough race. I fell on the first descent and hurt my ribs. I don’t know if I have fractured any, and the last two hours were terrible,” explained Sara Alonso.

She also recalled what she had thought about during the race: “When I was suffering, I thought of Kalie, Ida, the DANA and the fires this summer. I’m grateful to be able to be here today. I was also thinking about the overall standings, of course, but it was a very tough race. I’m very happy to have achieved five victories and the overall title,” added the champion.

Final race results

Behind the SkyMasters podium finishers, these were the runners who completed the top ten in each Marató dels Dements classification:

Men’s results

4. Loic Robert: 4:43:09.
5. Morgan Elliott: 4:43:30.
6. Daniel Izquierdo: 4:44:10.
7. Frédéric Tranchand: 4:44:50.
8. José Manuel Quispe: 4:51:59.
9. Oier Zubeldia: 4:53:17.
10. Shoma Otagiri: 4:53:36.

Women’s results

4. Alice Bausseron: 5:46:59.
5. Eva Delafosse: 5:49:56.
6. Patricia Pineda: 5:50:48.
7. Oihana Zubillaga: 5:51:14.
8. Ruut Joensuu: 5:59:35.
9. Anna Darmograi: 6:00:21.
10. Ainara Alcuaz: 6:07:16.

Overall series standings

The season standings were separate from the race results. Merillas scored 647 points and finished ahead of Quispe, with 568, and Tranchand, with 563. Alonso reached 700 points; Eva Delafosse was second with 506 and Patricia Pineda third with 492.

Amanda Nilsson finished fifteenth at Dements and Svetlana Nurmukhametova dropped out. These were the remaining places in the international series standings:

Men’s overall standings

4. Marcos Villamuera: 530 points.
5. Morgan Elliott: 484 points.
6. Lucien Mermillon: 476 points.
7. Nicolás Molina: 441 points.
8. Alex Oberbacher: 431 points.
9. Loic Robert: 410 points.
10. Daniel Izquierdo: 409 points.

Women’s overall standings

4. Amanda Nilsson: 479 points.
5. Alice Bausseron: 461 points.
6. Elena Karanfiloska: 454 points.
7. Natalie Beadle: 439 points.
8. Oihana Zubillaga: 417 points.
9. Greta García: 414 points.
10. Rosalía Zegarra: 409 points.

The end of an era in the Serra d’Espadà

The season featured 19 races in 12 countries and four continents. Dements hosted SkyMasters for the third consecutive year; in 2027 the final will move to a different venue.

Merillas had also won the 2025 final in the Serra d’Espadà, ahead of Luca Del Pero and Tranchand, although Del Pero took the overall title that year. This time, victory in Eslida came with the series title.