Andorra's David Rogé Finishes 34th in La Gomera Vertical Mountain Race Debut

David Rogé of Andorra finished 22nd in the Sky race on Sunday, capping the country's participation at the World Mountain Running Championships in La Gomera, Gran Canaria.

The Federació Andorrana de Muntanyisme (FAM) athlete completed the 30.08km course, which featured 2,536m of positive elevation gain, in a time of 3:06:34. Just 30 seconds separated him from 21st place, though he trailed winner Luca del Pero of Italy by around 23 minutes. Del Pero clocked 2:43:27 for gold, with Spain's Dimas Pereira taking silver in 2:44:10 and Poland's Dominik Tabor securing bronze in 2:46:52.

Rogé, making his world championships debut, paced himself conservatively at the start to manage fatigue from three prior days of competition. He then surged on the demanding final climb to gain six spots. Two days earlier, he had placed 34th in the 4.95km Vertical event, finishing in 43:16 amid high humidity and a grueling closing section—more than six minutes behind victor Lluís Puigvert, followed by José Antonio Bellido and Del Pero on the podium.

Andorra's standout moment came from Samu Ponce's bronze medal in Saturday's 62.3km Ultra race, which included 3,775m of vertical gain. This result boosted the delegation to sixth in the overall medal table. Sabrina Solana also competed in the Ultra alongside Ponce.

"The race was demanding enough, but the heat made it even tougher. I return from the Canaries pleased with my performance in this world championships debut," Rogé said.