UTMB 2021: ‘rebirth’ sees Mont Blanc trail races return but with fewer Asian runners
- ‘Beautiful to be able to organise UTMB again,’ says co-founder Michel Poletti after event was cancelled last year
- Asian hopes carried by Hong Kong-based trio in men’s race and Japan’s Kaori Niwa but they face tough challenge from Europe and US
Between August 23-29, the world’s best trail runners will go head to head in the Alps, competing in seven different races up to 300 kilometres long. The main race, that gives the whole event its name, is the UTMB – the 170km circumnavigation of Mont Blanc.
UTMB co-founder Michel Poletti told the Post that after the uncertainty and lockdowns, it was “beautiful to be able to organise UTMB again.” He called the return a “rebirth”.
Poletti explained that, because of France’s “pass sanitaire” – a nationwide electronic health pass, made compulsory during the UTMB, the event will proceed largely as it did pre-pandemic. The only differences will be runners starting in waves, and food and drink at checkpoints handed out by volunteers rather than the runners helping themselves.
Another difference is that because of the pandemic, Asian representation at the 2021 UTMB will be much reduced.
This year, mainland Chinese runners will not be able to challenge Europe and America’s best. The minimum of 14 days in hotel quarantine on return put off contenders such as Yao Miao and You Peiquan from going to France.
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Hong Kong is now flying the flag for Asia.
Three members of Hong Kong’s North Face Adventure Team – Wong Ho-chung, Philippines’ John Ray Onifa who lives in Hong Kong, and Jay “Jantaraboon” Kiangchaipaiphana of Thailand are all contenders in the 170km UTMB.
Onifa says he is aiming for a top 10 finish, while Jantaraboon claims that he will be happy with top 20. Wong, who became best-ever Asian UTMB finisher with his 6th place in 2019, and looks to be in the best shape of his life, may have greater ambitions.
To fulfil them, Wong will have to challenge two French superstars – Francois D’Haene and Xavier Thevenard, who are tied with three UTMB wins each.
The battle for the record-breaking fourth UTMB men’s title is likely to produce this year’s champion, says UTMB live broadcast commentator Jose Antonio “Depa” de Pablo. .
D’Haene has another motivation – the 36-year old winemaker wants to be the first person to win the USA’s Hardrock 100 Mile and the UTMB in the same year. D’Haene took Hardrock title in July in record-breaking time.
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Besides the two Frenchmen, Wong will also face the “Russian Titan” Dmitriy Mityaev, another name on Depa’s UTMB podium shortlist.
Despite weighing over 80kg and standing 184cm, Mityaev can run a marathon in 2 hours 26 minutes. The Russian trains with the precision of a scientist and was second at the 145km Sur les Traces des Ducs de Savoie (TDS) at UTMB 2019.
Depa’s final pick for the UTMB podium is Pablo Villa of Spain, who won TDS against Mityaev in 2019. “This year I have done more hours, more elevation, more distance in preparation,” Villa told the Post. The opposition is irrelevant: “I don’t even know who is on the starting list.”
The list also includes American Jim Walmsley – this year’s winner of Western States 100, one of the world’s most competitive trail running races. Walmsley has long aspired to become the first male American runner to win the UTMB. The reigning champion, Pau Capel of Spain, is unable to race this year because of a recent knee surgery.
The women’s field in the UTMB has defending champion Courtney Dauwalter of the USA and the 2018 winner Francesca Canepa of Italy. “I don’t have any goal. I just want to see what happens,” the Italian told the Post.
For Depa, the favourite is Spain’s Maite Mayora: “She was 3rd in 2019. I train with her and she is very strong. Dauwalter is a possibility too, but this year she pulled out of Western States. Then, Sabrina Stanley (USA) – she won Hardrock.”
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Asia’s best hope is Kaori Niwa of Japan, the always smiling, diminutive athlete who has a black belt in judo. Niwa was 4th at the 2017 UTMB, despite minimal preparation after breaking her wrist. Now 46, she started running at the age of 35 to get fitter for back-country skiing. In 2018 she left her job as a secretary to became a professional trail runner.
Niwa says her goal is to “to erase the memory of UTMB in 2018” where she did badly after overtraining. “This year is very competitive. If I make the top 10, that’s great.”
Her compatriot Ruy Ueda is one of the favourites in the 101km Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix (CCC). The 28-year old was second in the CCC in 2016, and this year he returns as a freshly-crowned skyrunning (competing at high altitude and on very steep terrain) world champion.
In Chamonix, in a youth-v-experience clash, Ueda will face Luis Alberto Hernando of Spain.
Hernando is a phenomenon. An Olympian who competed in biathlon in the Turin Winter Games in 2006, at 44 the Spaniard is one of the world’s very best trail runners. He has won both skyrunning and trail running world championships – the latter aged 40.
Hernando, who says he does not do yoga or gym work but does rock climbing and cross-country skiing instead, is also the defending CCC champion and 2015 UTMB runner-up.
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He told the Post he will run the shorter CCC again because he does not enjoy the feeling of utmost exhaustion after racing one hundred miles.
For Hongkongers Wong and Onifa, maximum possible exhaustion may be the best strategy. The pair will have plenty of time to rest back in Hong Kong – on the day they were flying out to UTMB, the quarantine on return from France went up from one week to three.
