Konoka Azumi (Japan) and Adrian MacDonald (United States) have won the UTMB Tarawera Ultra Trail New Zealand 100 miles race. Tarawera was the opener of the UTMB World Series 2024.
For Azumi it meant a debut victory. Five years ago she made her debut at the 102 kilometres race, after which she came back every year. This time she had a go at the TMiler, the 100 miles, and won in a time of 18:24:53. Good for 7th place overall.
Chantelle Smith (Australia) finished second, more than an hour and a half behind Azumi; 19:55:41. Chrissi Faber (Germany) came in third; 21:15:17.
Late decider
MacDonald started out in sixth position for the first 30 kilometres. By the second refreshment post at Okahu he was in the lead, and kept that lead all the way until the finish, where the clock stopped at 15:00:57. Local runner Samuel Harvey finished second, almost 29 minutes later: 15:29:53. Harvey overtook Mike Carroll (Australia), number 3 in 15:37:01, in the last six kilometres.
T102
Dan Jones (New Zealand) won the T102, the 100 kilometres race in 7:46:42, leading from start to finish. Last year he was also the fastest in 7:27:55. This year he could take it easy, as Justin Grunewald (United States) was almost 40 minutes behind him (8:25:57) to take second. Matthew Healy (South-Africa) grabbed third place, finishing just within 9 hours; 8:58:43.
Ruth Croft gave New Zealand even more reason to cheer, winning the women’s race. She finished 5th overall in 9:14:14, only one minute behind Sage Canaday, the number 4 in the men’s race (9:13:06). Croft made her way up the field, thanks to a strong last 30 kilometres.
Beth McKenzie finished second in 9:38:03 (7th overall). Nikki Everton (New Zealand) finished third in 10:26:53 (14th overall).
T50
Caitlin Fielder (New Zealand) was the fastest on the T50 (51.4 kilometres). With her time of 4:01:41 she was 8 minutes faster than Kate Avery (4:09:58), also for New Zealand. Robyn Lesh (United States) completed the podium. She finished in 4:13:31.
Fielder finished last year second at the UTMB Tarawera Ultra Trail T50, behind Allie McLaughlin (United States).
Ronnie Sparke (Australia) won the men’s race in 3:30:48. He passed home trail runner Michael Voss on the way to the refreshment post at Lake Tikitapu. Voss held on to second place up until Redwoods, but in the final 7 kilometres he saw Charlie Hamilton and Yutaro Yokouchi pass him.
Hamilton (Australia) finished second in 3:34:36. Yokouchi (Japan) came in third (3:38:19), beating Voss (3:38:41) by 22 seconds.
Dan Jones winning the UTMB Tarawera T102 in 2023, photo Graeme Murray
