Montreal’s Mathieu Blanchard has confirmed he’ll toe the beginning line at Extremely Path du Mont-Blanc in two weeks, becoming a member of an elite lineup that organizers of the 171-km race are billing the strongest elite subject because the race started 20 years in the past.
Blanchard will probably be vying for his third consecutive podium end in Chamonix on Sept. 1. He ran final yr’s race in 19 hours, 54 minutes and 50 seconds to complete an in depth second behind Spain’s Kilian Jornet, who ran 19:49:30 for a brand new course document. In 2021, Blanchard completed third behind French runners François D’haene (20:45:59) and Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz (20:58:31).
In June, Blanchard ran 15:37:02 to complete sixth in his Western States Endurance Run debut. He advised Canadian Operating after the race that Western States introduced a uniquely troublesome problem: “I pushed via, I fought arduous, my physique was tremendous painful like by no means earlier than,” he stated, including he was proud to earn the “mythic buckle” awarded to Western States winners.
Among the many giants of path working Blanchard will probably be up towards at UTMB is British runner Tom Evans, who ran the fourth-fastest time in Western States historical past (14:40:22) to win this yr’s males’s race, and who completed behind Blanchard ultimately yr’s UTMB to position third (20:34:35).
“I’m extremely enthusiastic in regards to the thought of participating within the UTMB this yr,” Evans just lately advised UTMB. “I’m coming into the occasion in a a lot better place than final yr once I was contemporary from a knee operation. The race is so stuffed with historical past and for the twentieth anniversary, I need to be a part of the story by doing a Western States 100 Endurance Run and UTMB double. It’s an enormous problem and with the power of the peloton, it gained’t be simple, but it surely’s a contest I’m trying ahead to and imagine I can obtain.”
Along with Jornet, this yr’s males’s subject will see the return of American Jim Walmsley, who completed fourth in final yr’s race (21:12:12) and who has held the Western States course document (14:09:28) since 2019.
Different notable entries within the males’s subject embrace Swiss runner Jonas Russi (winner of the Lavaredo Extremely Path by UTMB 2023), fellow Swiss runner Jean-Philippe Tschumi (who shared victory on the 100K Path 100 Andorra by UTMB with the American Ben Dhiman) and Sweden’s Petter Engdahl.
Arguably probably the most compelling storyline from this yr’s UTMB will probably be American path working phenom Courtney Dauwalter‘s quest for the triple crown following her resounding victories at Western States (the place she ran 15:29:33 to smash the 16:47:19 course document set by Canadian Ellie Greenwood in 2012) and Hardrock 100 (the place she set a brand new course document in 26:14:08). The Golden, Colo.-based runner gained UTMB in 2019 (24:34:26) and once more in 2021, when she set the present girls’s course document (22:30:54).
She stands to face fierce competitors from an elite subject that features New Zealand’s Ruth Croft (who completed second at Western States final yr), Germany’s Katharina Hartmuth (winner of this yr’s Eiger Extremely Path by UTMB), Italy’s Martina Valmassoi (winner of the 2022 TDS in Chamonix) and Hungary’s Eszter Csillag, who completed fifth ultimately yr’s UTMB.
