In a race stacked with international stars it was always likely racing would be intense and fast and so it proved to be the case as the visitors dominated the 102km race at the Tarawera Ultramarathon event in Rotorua today in close to perfect trail running conditions.
The women’s race saw debutant Manuela Soccol (Belgium) stun the field with a brilliant victory, one that left the former Olympic Games marathoner in tears at the finish. Soccol proved too strong for another debutant over the distance in Anne-Marie Madden (USA) and Naomi Brand (South Africa).
The Brit runner Tom Evans was in control throughout and paced himself brilliantly through to the line in 8:03:26, only just missing the magic eight-hour mark. Evans was over half an hour in front of Mathieu Blanchard (Canada), with Kris Brown (USA) less than a minute further back in third.
Full results here.
Next stop: Transgrancanaria HG, March 4, 2020
Transgrancanaria is the next UTWT race. The 2020 event will take place on Wednesday 4 – 8 March in Gran Canaria Island. Runners can complete the 17km, 30km, 42km distances, 65km, 128km, 360km.
Over 4000 participants including international athletes will compete. As usual, the main race of the event will be the 128 km Classic, which will repeat the route from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to the south of the island, with the big change in the location of the finish line, which will be at The Lighthouse of Maspalomas.
Winners of the race will get 1500 UTWT points each. www.transgrancanaria.net UTWT 2020 RACES(race/country/points/date)
Download the 2020 UTWT map here
1 Vibram® Hong-Kong 100/Hong-Kong/UTWT 1500/17.01.2020
2 Tarawera Ultramarathon/New Zealand/UTWT 1000/08.02.2020
3 Transgrancanaria HG/Spain/UTWT 1500/04.03.2020
4 Gaoligong by UTMB®/China/UTWT 1000/23.03.2020
5 Patagonia Run/Argentina/UTWT 500/04.04.2020
6 100 Miles of Istria/Croatia/UTWT 1000/17.04.2020
7 Penyagolosa Trails HG/Spain/UTWT 1000/18.04.2020
8 Ultra-Trail® Mount Fuji/Japan/UTWT 1000/24.04.2020
9 Madeira Island Ultra-Trail®/Portugal/UTWT 1500/25.04.2020
10 Whalers’ Great Route Ultra-Trail/Portugal/UTWT 500/08.05.2020
11 Ultra-Trail® Australia/Australia/UTWT 1500/16.05.2020
12 VVX Volvic-Volcanic Experience/France/UTWT 500/22.05.2020
13 mozart100®/Austria/UTWT 1000/20.06.2020
14 La Sportiva Lavaredo Ultra Trail/Italy/UTWT 1500/26.06.2020
15 Western State®100-Mile Endurance Run /USA/UTWT 1500/27.06.2020
16 Val d’Aran by UTMB®/Spain/UTWT 500/03.07.2020
17 Eiger Ultra-Trail®/Switzerland/UTWT 1000/19.07.2020
18 Golden Ring Ultra-Trail®/Russia/UTWT 500/19.07.2020
19 TDS® (UTMB® Mont-Blanc)/France-Italy/UTWT 1000/26.08.2020
20 UTMB® (UTMB® Mont-Blanc)/France-Italy-Switzerland/UTWT 2000/28.08.2020
21 CCC® (UTMB® Mont-Blanc)/France-Italy-Switzerland/UTWT 1500/28.08.2020
22 Harricana Ultra-Trail®/Canada/UTWT 500/13.09.2020
23 Trans Jeju/Korea/UTWT 500/10.10.2020
24 Ultra-Trail® Ninghai/China/UTWT 500/17.10.2020
25 Salomon Cappadocia Ultra-Trail®/Turkey/UTWT 1000/17.10.2020
26 Javelina Jundred/USA/UTWT 500/31.10.2020
27 Ultra-Trail® Cape Town/South Africa/UTWT 1000/28.11.2020
28 Oman by UTMB®/Sultanate of Oman/UTWT 500/03.12.2020