Rosa Lara Feliu and Yoel de Paz Baeza win Mallorca

Posted on November 3, 2024•By John Kraijenbrink•News

Rosa Lara Feliu and Yoel de Paz Baeza win Mallorca

Yoel de Paz Baeza and Rosa Lara Feliu (both Spain) have won the first edition of Els Tres Mils, that’s part of Mallorca by UTMB. The 47 kilometres race (2.300m+) was one of the only two races happening this weekend in Mallorca. The 100 kilometres and 100 miles trail runs both got cancelled due to the storm hitting the South of Spain and the Balearic Islands.

The other race that took place was the Camins de s’Arxiduc, the 26 kilometres trail run, with a thousand metres of elevation. Judith Wyder showed she wasn’t the big favourite for nothing. The Swiss trail runner, who needed a Running Stone to be able to run the UTMB OCC next year, won the women’s race in two hours, thirteen minutes and 32 seconds. That time was good for eight overall. Isabel Calero (Spain) finished second in 2:25:06. The Italian Margherita Vitali completed the podium. She clocked 2:32:41.

Eduard Hernandez (Spain) won the men’s race in 2:01:46. Valentin Benard (France) finished second in 2:04:51. The third place was for Dominik Matt (Austria) in 2:05:37.

Minute of silence

After an impressive minute of silence for the victims of the storm in southern Spain, Rosa Lara Feliu led the Els Tres Mils race from the start. The Compressport athlete was the most agile on the tricky, muddy and technical trail from Soller to Port de Soller, where she finished in 5:10:17.

Bailey Kowalczyk stayed close but never really posed a threat. The American Nike Trail athlete finished more than five minutes behind Feliu; 5:15:59. To her own surprise Martina Valmassoi came in third. The Italian ultra runner was supposed to run the M5000, the 69 kilometres long trail, but due to the storms that hit Mallorca on Friday and Saturday that race got cancelled, so Valmassoi ran the 50k. A ‘short race’ for the Salomon athlete and for a long time a podium place looked far away. However, a strong finish – thanks to her ultra experience – brought her third place in 5:23:16.

Two and three for Romania

Bogdan Damian did it a little better. The Romanian also finished strong and moved up from fourth at Coll de Lofre, sixteen kilometres before the finish, to second at the finish. He clocked 4:23:20. That was almost 5 minutes slower than De Paz Baeza, who won in 4:18:25.

Leonard Mitrica, Damian’s teammate at Datacor Running Team and compatriot, finished third in 4:26:17.

Kullamannen Sweden

Juuso Simpanen was by far the strongest at the Kullamannen 100 miles. The Finnish ultra athlete needed 14 hours, 28 minutes and 35 seconds to complete the 160 kilometres (2.547m+) between Haganas and Bastad in Sweden. “I’m very tired but happy. That was my first win in a UTMB World Series race”, Simpanen said in his finish line interview. “I started at an easy pace for the first 20K and just tried to keep it up. I think I succeeded very well.”

William Englund (Sweden) needed 38 minutes more for second place; 15:06:48. Samir Tazi (France) came in third, almost two hours after Simpanen.

Emma Stuart triumphs

With his 16:23:26 Tazi was only a couple of minutes faster than Emma Stuart. The Irish ultra runner won the women’s race in 16:28:20. She beat Anna Carlsson (Sweden) by almost 40 minutes; 17:08:13. Emelie Eklof finished third in 18:52:49.

You find all results of Mallorca by UTMB here and of Kullamannen here.

John Kraijenbrink

I run for fun. I run to be in the mountains, in the forest. I run, because running fascinates me. That’s why I study all the science about running. What I discover, I share with you. To help you to be a better runner, but above all to help you having fun running.