New Zealand ultramarathon runner Ruth Croft wins the UTMB race. Photo / @ruthcrofty
New Zealand ultramarathon runner Ruth Croft wins the UTMB race. Photo / @ruthcrofty
New Zealand ultramarathon and trail runner Ruth Croft has made history overnight, becoming the first woman in the world to win all three UTMB World Series Finals races.
The 36-year-old etched her name in the record books with her latest victory in France, winning the UTMB Mont Blanc World Series100-mile (160km) race.
The race is considered the pinnacle of long-distance endurance running, with Croft competing against the best trail and ultramarathon runners from around the world.
Croft said she knew she had a tall task heading into the du Mont-Blanc trail running race in Chamonix, France as cold temperatures, rain and snow were forecast.
She was also up against American rival Courtney Dauwalter, who had won three of the previous four titles.
“I knew if I wanted to give myself a chance, I had to go out a bit harder and run a little more aggressively than I did last year,” Croft told media after the race.
With this latest victory, Croft has become the first woman ever to win all three. She is also the first New Zealander to win the title.
When she passed Dauwalter around the 100km mark, she said she never looked back.
Once the weather came in and it got cold, I knew I had to just survive for the night.
Dauwalter entered the race with three UTMB wins under her belt (2019, 2021, 2023) and a nearly unbeaten track record since 2019, a span in which she had won 25 of the 26 races of 50km or longer that she finished.
But it was only the weather and not Dauwalter that could match Croft once she got into her stride.
Ruth Croft taking out the UTMB ultradistance race in France yesterday. Photo / @ruthcrofty
She was formidable through the first half of the race and ran a time of 22h 56m 23s to take out the victory.
The race was shortened slightly because of the bad weather and sent runners through parts of France, Italy, and Switzerland, before completing the rugged 165km loop around the Mont Blanc massif, which included about 9450m of elevation gain and loss.
“It wasn’t necessarily the main goal, just kind of like [the] cherry on top,” Croft said.
“I think it’s interesting to look back in 2015, [which] was my first year at the Chamonix, when I won the CCC, and so it’s taken 10 years to get to this point and win UTMB,” Croft said.
French runner Camille Bruyas finished second in 23h 28m 48s, while Germany’s Katharina Hartmuth was third in 24h 16m 39s.
British runner Tom Evans won the men’s race in 19h 18m 58s, outrunning American Ben Dhiman (19h 51m 37s) by about 43 minutes.
