🦘🐨Ultra Trail Straya Results
"Maybe it's time I work on my self belief and actually commit to this running malarkey..."
Your weekly fix of NZ trail running news
Here's what’s in the drop bag this week:
🦘🐨UTS Ultra Trail Straya Results
🎯Things You May Have Missed
☢️WARNING: FREE STUFF
📰SK News Desk
🏁Upcoming events: The Bay, The Taniwha
⛰️💊Mountain Skag of The Week
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Ultra Trail Straya Results
Crikey! What a great watch that was over the weekend. This year's extra coverage certainly set a new standard for this side of the world. Fingers crossed that Tarawera will rise to that level over the next few years.
My mate Jub messaged me on Saturday saying,
“UTA’s a bit like the Bledisloe cup, eh?”
I have to agree, there are a lot of similarities. With Ultra Trail Straya and Tarawera, we have a home and away game. We win the majority of the races and have the best runners. All we need now is an oversized cup.
Alright, let’s jump into the results, starting with the fiddy.
📏50KM | ⛰️2442M
Women’s podium:
🥇Caitlin Fielder - 5:02:27
🥈Alison Wilson - 5:06:35
🥉Demi Caldwell - 5:07:47
Caitlin Fielder came in as red-hot favourite, spearheading a stacked Kiwi field with the possibility of us filling the podium!
She took the early lead and never looked back. She led fellow Kiwi Ali Wilson by 2 minutes through the first 15km checkpoint. Aussie hopeful Demi Caldwell had Wilson in her crosshairs, only 50s back.
Running into the Queen Victoria Hospital, Fielder had stretched her lead over Wilson to 5 minutes, who still had Caldwell snapping at her heels.
Fielder held strong on the long descent out of Queen Victoria and up the infamous Furbur Steps to add the UTA 50K trophy to her 19 Tarawera 50K victories😂.
Wilson hammered it in to finish just 4m8s back from Fielder, with Caldwell coming in hot, just over 1 minute back to take 3rd.
Yeaaah, the girls! We had two Kiwis on top of the podium, and Annabell Bramwell and Hannah Wall placed 5th and 6th, respectively, to cap off a dominant display in the Women’s race.
It’s crazy to think that current National Champ and 3x Kepler winner, Katie Morgan, didn’t race due to illness as well. What could have been!
Now, it’s no secret I’m a huge Ali Wilson fangirl - kudos to Caitlin, but here’s what Ali had to say:
What was the plan? Foot to the floor and see what happens as per usual?
“The plan was to not get carried away too early on, but that was about it. There was a strong field out there and I just knew I had to run my own race. Pretty confident I left it all out there, especially that last 10km after spotting 3rd place over my shoulder...”
How does it feel to take 2nd at one of the biggest 50k races in the world?
“I'm pretty stoked with how the race went. Maybe it's time I work on my self belief and actually commit to this running malarkey.... ha who am I kidding, I've got Hyrox in 6 weeks.”
Thanks for that, Ali. It seems self-belief might be a bit overrated. Keep sandbagging and throwing around tin in the gym; it’s going alright😂.
Men’s podium:
🥇Dan Jones - 4:01:19
🥈Miguel Benitez - 4:11:38
🥉Sam Rout - 4:19:28
It was no surprise to see Dan Jones setting the early pace, but who the hell is Miguel Benetiz?🤔
I’m guessing Jones now knows, as they ran the first half of the race stride for stride. Behind them, the Flying Doctor David Haunschmidt was leading the chase pack, before the Northland Express, Sam Rout moved onto the podium up one of the early climbs.
Jones managed to pull away from Benetiz, running into the Queen Vic Hospital (29.2km) with a slim 1m22s lead. Rout pulled into the station a further 2m32s back.
Jones upped the intensity and, much like at Kepler, used the long descent to break free and out of sight. With 9km to go, he was over 5 minutes clear of Benetiz and “cruising”.
But all it takes is one wrong step, one cramp attack, one disloyal fart and the race can flip on it’s head. But there would be no ‘Worst Run Ever’ moment for Jones today as he levitated up the Furry steps to take the victory by 10 minutes.
When he came in, Benetiz looked well and truly cooked, but he held on to take the Silver, with Rout storming across the line for third.
Well played Dan, but you win sh💩t all the time- I’ll leave my quote credit until you win at Western States this year.
I was stoked to see Sam Rout charge across the line in 3rd. After a disappointing (his words, not mine) 7th at Tarawera, it was an awesome moment to see him cross the finish line with his family watching on.
Here’s what the 🚂Northland Express had to say:
What was your plan going in, and how did your race play out?
“The plan was to try stay in touch with front group and keep them in sight. The race played out perfectly and worked it to my strengths. Around 10km was feeling pretty good so split off from the pack to chase Dan and Miguel.”
“Had glimpses of them up until the 18km mark, managed to run strong and hold 3rd place. Left a bit in the tank for the furber stairs and sent it home. Stoked to make it on podium and get my ticket to OCC.”
Thanks for that, Sam. Bring on OCC💪.
📏161.5KM | ⛰️7290M
Men’s podium:
🥇Eric Concé - 18:55:24
🥈Quinton Gill - 19:47:49
🥉Chris McAuliffe - 20:22:06
Nathan Sheppherd and Cam Kerr led the early charge for the Kiwis, running inside the top 10 for most of Friday morning.
Kerr pushed his way up into 3rd, with none other than Sam Harvey on bottle duty helping him take the fight to the Aussies.
But it wasn’t the Aussies that Kerr needed to worry about. Sydney-based Frenchman Eric Concé and Blue Mountains resident Canadian, Quinton Gill, ran away from the field, going at it like a couple of enraged wombats. They were still trading blows 120km deep into the race.
Concé eventually found an opening in Gill’s armour, powering away to victory by over 50 minutes.
Unfortunately for Kerr, the back half didn’t go as well as the first. But he pulled it together to finish strongly in 23:25:16, good enough for 13th place💪.
Here’s what Concé had to say about his race
“Firstly, I feel tired but it’s unbelievable because I’m ok, when I passed first with motivation my legs were so bad, I had nothing, I can’t believe this,” said Concé. “I train so long, so many months to be easy today and that worked, I’m very happy for what I did, for what my partner let me do, running every day, every morning, every afternoon.”
Eric Concé
Women’s podium:
🥇Meghann Coffey - 21:52:24
🥈Cecilia Mattas - 22:43:24
🥉Kellie Angel - 23:14:05
Meghann Coffey came out on top in her debut miler against two former UTA 100 winners, Cecilia Mattas and Kellie Angel.
She had a tough day at the office, dealing with gut issues for much of it (thank Kilian for all that mud, eh?), but she persevered, finding a new lease of life as the headlamps flicked on, to take a convincing win by over 50 minutes.
Our girl Emma Timmis had another great performance in her newfound love, the 100-mile distance.
She looks to have paced her race perfectly, spending most of Friday moving up through the ranks before settling inside the top 10. Then, she played leapfrog through the final 40km to take a well-deserved 5th place in a time of 24:02:43😎.
You won The Spectacle Miler and had an amazing 2nd at Tarawera. How did The UTA Miler compare to those 2?
“It would be a spectacular race if you could see more than 50m through the fog!! Only joking, it was stunning but unfortunately no views for the miler on the Friday.”
“As always with any super long race there were highs and lows. There were moments when I wondered how on earth I think running is fun.”
“This was definitely the toughest miler I’ve done so far. If you love running up and down steps then definitely get it on your list.”
“Those Furber Steps are not to be underestimated!”
Emma Timmis
Thanks for that, Emma - another great result. Look forward to seeing what’s next.
Also, a big shout out to Wendy Du Toit, completing the miler in 44:52:40, finishing 2nd in the 60-64 category
📏100KM | ⛰️4520M
Women’s podium:
🥇Eve Moore - 10:55:19
🥈Beth McKenzie - 11:14:04
🥉Emily Brunt - 11:25:29
Beth McKenzie may have been the defending champ, but it was the Brit, Eve Moore, who came out guns a blazing.
24km in, she had ground out a 1m36s lead over McKenzie, with Kiwi, Julia ‘Mrs Mt Somers’ Grant just 2 minutes back.
McKenzie chased hard, but Moore continued to pull further ahead. At the Katoomba Aquatic Centre (56.2KM), Moore had stretched her lead to 6 minutes. Emily Brunt caught Grant, and they were now together, 25 minutes off the lead.
McKenzie couldn’t make any inroads on Moore, and with 20km to go, her lead had reached double digits. Brunt pulled clear of Grant, but it was still game on with the Furry stairs to come.
Moore powered home to take victory by just under 20 minutes, with McKenzie adding another Silver to her string of 100km podium finishes.
Unfortunately, Grant couldn’t reel in Brunt, but it was still such an impressive run, especially since it was her first 100km race, and she was crewless on enemy soil!
What was your plan heading into your first 100k, and how does it feel to follow up your podium at Tarawera with a fourth here at UTA100?
“To be honest I didn't have a set plan leading into the 100km. Being my first one I just wanted to survive, yet still wanted to race it as hard as I could. There are a lot of learnings, both good and bad. Not having a support crew meant I lost a fair bit of time, so that's something I'd change.”
“I was happy with my result but 4th is always a tricky position to be completely satisfied with so maybe I will have to go back.”
Julia Grant
Men’s podium:
🥇Jiasheng Shen- 9:26:02
🥈Mike Carroll - 9:48:56
🥉Rhett Gibson - 10:02:25
As predicted, Jiasheng Shen took the early lead and did his thing. There haven’t been many people who have run the UTA100 as qualified as Shen. He’s got 2 top 10 Western States finishes, including a 15:09:49 last year (which was only good enough for 8th🤯), and he also took the Silver at CCC in 2023.
The veteran Aussie duo of Mike Carroll and Rhett Gibson chased hard all day, but it always felt like a race for Silver & Bronze.
2023 Champ George Murray and the tireless Benje Patterson were our best on the day. Murray moved into 2nd early on before falling off the podium pace at the halfway point. Murray and Patterson continued to battle hard to finish in 5th and 6th respectively (10:18:51 and 10:24:57).
Congratulations to all of you who took on UTA over the weekend, no matter the result. You did the training, turned up, and took your shot on the second-biggest trail running stage in the world💪.
Click Here for the full results, including the UTA22 where NZ’s Julie Speedy took out the 22km! Yeee ha!
Check out the Ultra Trail Straya Instagram for videos and photos from the weekend.
This Week’s Newsletter Is Brought To You By…
Merrell Race Tekapo - September 13 2025
They’ve got mountains, a lake, and your new phone lock screen.
50km | 32km | 21km | 16km | 12km | 5km
ENTER NOW
Things You May Have Missed
Shannon-Leigh Litt Clocks up 500 Consecutive Ultras
That’s 25,000 km’s if you’ve started counting on your fingers. Of course, she hasn’t stopped at 500, and she’s run more than 50 on a lot of days, so that figure is probably several hundred more. I just did a quick count back, and I’m pretty sure that’s got me covered for lifetime running mileage😝.
With that achievement, she’s made it back into ‘the real news’ that is stuff. You can read the article here.
What’s next for Shannon-Leigh? The next milestone is 603, the men’s world record for most consecutive marathons (just 42.2, weak😉).
Xtrail Series Continues In The Orongorongo’s
Barefoot Xtrail aka the rebranded Wellington Xterra(Don’t sue me please) kicked off round 2 in The Orongorongo Valley on Sunday. The wet and windy conditions didn’t put the punters off with well over 300 runners coming to slip n slide their way around the trails. Full results available here.
Auckland Trail Series Underway
In the same artery, the six-race Auckland Trail Series got underway on Sunday at the stunning Tāwharanui Peninsula. Fark me, there were over 900 runners across the four distances and another 100 odd runners identifying as walkers.
Full results available here.
Not all Roo’s & Cockatoo’s at UTA
You thought queuing for water at Tarawera was bad in 2024? How about coming to a standstill for nearly 2 hours to get through a bottleneck at UTA? It got so bad that the officials extended the cutoffs.
I’ve now received reports from several disgruntled f🤬🤬ked off runners from the 50, 100, and 160k that they had huge delays. A little digging in the comments section on the UTA Facebook page gets ugly pretty quickly.
Now, I know there are always two sides to a pancake, and I don’t know if it was worse this year or if this happens every year. I imagine big mobs of mid-pack warriors hitting hundreds of stairs and rope sections are always going to cause a bit of mayhem. Hopefully, this can be improved in future years to enhance the overall experience of the typical runner.
A Raw Recap From Transvulcina
The day after hearing Ruth Croft had to pull the pin due to hyperthermia at Transvulcania, Matt Daniels sent out his Transvulcani recap on his Substack.
I found it a fascinating read and a rare, no-punches-pulled insight into what can happen when you’re pushing as hard as these elite athletes.
☢️WARNING FREE STUFF- RACE ENTRIES☢️
Now, it’s no secret that the WAI2K gets me sweaty between my toe socks.
So, I’m stoked to announce that Race Director extraordinaire Gareth Thomas has generously hooked me up with a free entry for each distance — 12km, 25km, 50km, and 100km — to give away to four lucky members of the Trail Running NZ Paid Supporters crew.
If you missed your invite to Spain for the World Champs this year, the 100km race is once again the NZ Long Course champs. Come crush it at WAI2K to give yourself the best shot of making it on the next NZ team.
If you know 2/5’s of sweet FA about the WAI2K, check out my in-depth preview HERE.
To enter the competition is simple.
Make sure you’re a paid subscriber. It’s less than a post long run BP Pie a month.
Answer the following question:
What was the last thing Simon said to Gareth in his favourite memory of the WAI2K? (Hint, you might need to follow a link)
Email trailrunningnz@gmail.com with your answer and the distance you want to win an entry.
Winners will be drawn on Saturday, the 31st, so you can enter as entries open on Sunday, June 1st. Race day is Saturday, November 22nd.
(Entries are for 2025 only and are non-transferable.)
SK News Desk
There have been two new entries into the SK History books in recent weeks.
First up, Valentinas Bakaitis (thank you CTRL+C).
💪SK Valleysish - 19:21
He added a bit of extra vert, taking the high route, instead of a swim.
I’ll let Valentinas explain
“I almost chickened out of doing SKV because of the rain on Friday, but decided to do it anyway (albeit taking Cattle ridge instead of Ruamahanga), and it was so much fun!”
“I did have a few moments when I was questioning my life choices, promising myself to never do this again and contemplating reporting Christ Martin to authorities for encouraging this sort of behaviour, but a day after completing it I found myself looking at SK Tarn maps, so I guess I haven’t really learned my lesson yet..”
Congratulations Valentinas! Cattle Ridge must have added at least an hour or two!
Next up? The current WUU2K 65K Champ - Olivia Lawrence.
The last I heard, Olivia was on the rehab grind, trying to sort out a grumpy hip … I guess dipping your toes back in means different things to everyone😝.
SK Main Range - 23:59:35🤯
Yes, you read that right. She scraped in under the 24-hour barrier by 25 seconds to become the 15th person to complete all 3 SK Traverses under 24 hours.
How long have you dreamed of knocking off the Main Range SK Sub 24?
“The Main Range sub 24 has been on the list for about 3 years.”
At what point did you realise it was going to literally come down to seconds?
“I realised 1.5km from the end (signposted to Kaitoke) that I had to sprint the rest of the way and pray the footing was okay.”
(For context, I thought I had 8km to go which I was fine with, then checked the map and it was more like 10 so picked up the speed. Turns out it was more like 12km, which I found out when I hit the 1.5km sign to Kaitoke Rd and did 4.15s down the clay at the end. So I guess that sign was my "oh shit" moment. I think someone added an extra few kms onto Marchant haha. Bastards.)
Amazing effort Olivia - it must feel great to knock the Main Range off finally!
If you want to know more about the SK, follow this link.
This information is provided for general informational purposes only and should not be considered financial mission advice. Please consult a licensed financial backcountry professional for personalized guidance tailored to your specific situation.
Upcoming Events:
The Bay, Nelson
Saturday, May 24
“The Bay” is back after a successful first year. 200 athletes turned up to get down last year, with some big dogs coming to eat.
Locals Nancy Jiang and Aditya Kesarcodi-Waston took out the Ultra, with Dean Stewart taking a narrow victory over Louis Schindler and Sanjeev Deo in the 34km.
If you’re a bit confused as you thought ‘The Bay’ was on over the weekend, that was ‘Da Bay’ AKA the Hawkes Bay Marathon. This one is down in the trail running metropolis of Nelson, based around the Cable Bay Adventure Park.
I couldn’t tell you what the changes are specifically, but it looks like the courses have had a bit of a tweak.
The Ultra has dropped from 55km to 50km and has lost 500m (there’s over a 44% chance I made up it was 55km last year.) The other courses look fairly similar, each one has just lost or gained a K.
🏃🏃♀️Distances on offer:
📏50KM | ⛰️2500M
📏35KM | ⛰️1800M
📏25KM | ⛰️1400M
📏9KM | ⛰️400M
Despite the changes, the Ultra still looks like it will have you wondering how you’ll get off the work toilet on Monday morning.
What should you expect from the course? I’ll let last year’s 55km male winner answer that.
“The views are incredible and something I have fond memories of. Heaps of elevation to sort your legs out, and it’s the place to make or lose time. The race involved fast runnable sections, bush-bashing, river crossings, boulder running, native bush, pine forests, farmland- a bit of everything.”
As I write this, there are currently 327 entrants across the 4 distances on the Entrants List.
That’s well over a 60% increase from last year. With the Spectacle looking like it’s here to stay and rumours of Loop The Lake making a return, all is bright on the trail running front in Nelson.
Entries look like they’re still open.
You can learn more about the event HERE and follow it on Facebook.
The Taniwha
Saturday, November 9 May 24
No, you’re not going crazy. It does feel like it's just been six months since The Taniwha was on!
With Totalsport's changes and the new focus on events based out of their Taupo office, the Taniwha has Taniported from November to May. It’s been a staple of the Waikato/BoP running community for a number of years. Fingers crossed, it’s found some open water to breathe in its new spot in the event calendar.
Now, I know I’ve given the event a bit of ribbing in the past for the quote,
“If too much amazing scenery were possible, this would be it!”
Part of getting this newsletter out each week is reading through event websites. I just find that way too many events default to the
“You won’t be able to contain yourself when you see the scenery”.
I think The Taniwha could focus on something that makes The Taniwha unique. How many other races have aid stations as good as this?
All jokes aside, it’s a fantastic off-road event with options for everyone, whether on 2 legs or 2 wheels.
🏃🏃♀️Distances on offer:
📏42.2KM
📏22KM
📏16KM
📏7KM
Entries are still open.
Check out the website for more info and follow on Faecesbook
#Mountain Skag Pic Of The Week
This week's hit of the good stuff is from Edward Thomas, tearing down the scree descending off Mount Bealey.
Tag @trailrunning.nz (NOTE THE “.”) and use #mountainskag, DM on Instagram, or email trailrunningnz@gmail.com to enter.
Every entry has a chance to win the monthly giveaway of a Mountain Skag T-shirt or hat.
We will return next week with The Bay results and whatever else I find in my screenshots.
It takes hours to write this newsletter but only 8 seconds to forward it to a friend.
PS. The Bay of Islands Ultra ran on Sunday. There are no official results up that I can see so far, so I’ll get something up next week.
From what I can see on Strava, Caris Teo took out the women’s race ahead of Emma Pescini. I'm not sure who took advantage of Sam Rout being out of town in the men’s.