Beth McKenzie (USA) and Michael Dimuantes have won the 101 kilometres long (4.520m+) Ultra-Trail Australia 2024, part of the UTMB World Series.
McKenzie was leading almost from the start, with Lucy Bartholomew (Australia) continuously on her heels. Yet the former American triathlete held on to her lead: “This was probably the hardest day of my life. I’ve done a bunch of Ironman races, but this is a whole different level. The day started with a beautiful sunrise and a run along a big ridge. I even took a video because I thought this is too good not to do it. The first hour was super flowy and then after that things got pretty technical and we had a lot of stairs. That’s not my strength, but I just kept going. I had some really tough patches. I took a fall around 70k and then coming into Queen Vic Lucy was closing in on me. The last 30k I struggled, but I kept on thinking of my daughters. I feel super proud. I’m so excited that my daughters can see their mum doing hard things.”
At the finish line McKenzie had a gap of 19 minutes with Lucy Bartholomew; 10:41:43 versus 11:00:34. Stephanie Auston (Australia) finished in third place in 11:11:17.
Michael Dimuantes surprises
The men’s race at the Ultra-Trail Australia 2024 had a surprising winner in Michael Dimuantes (Australia), who was, with his time of 9:01:24, almost an hour faster than runner-up Shaun Pettit (Great-Britain): 9:55:27.
Dimuantes took the lead after a third of the 101 kilometres: “I tried to be a bit smarter than I usually am, by just relaxing in the first two or three hours. I think I was a bit more confident in my running going into this, so that helped. Plus my nutrition was great, I felt really strong most of the day, I had a bit of a low patch before Queen Vic and then was able to run really well down and almost all the way on the climb out. Once I got close to home the feeling was just amazing, with all the 50k runners. As I was passing them, they were all really supportive”
Third place in the 100k was for Josef McGrath (Australia) in 9:56:55. Andy McConnell (Australia), who grabbed fourth place, was the only other runner finishing within 10 hours; 9:59:44.
Defending champion George Murray (New-Zealand), stepped out halfway through the race at Katoomba Aquatic Centre. So did Mike Carroll (Australia), who was last year the runner-up.
Photos Korupt Vision (top) and Tim Bardsley-Smith
All results Ultra-Trail Australia 2024