Pau Capell and Courtney Dauwalter have been crowned 2019 champions of the Ultra-Trail® World Tour at an end-of-season awards ceremony hosted in Paris, France.
Spanish star Pau Capell secured his second successive Ultra-Trail® World Tour annual title with first places in both the Transgrancanaria HG and the UTMB®, which he won by a resounding 48 minutes. Meanwhile, American athlete Courtney Dauwalter also triumphed at the UTMB® and the Madeira Island Ultra-Trail® to improve on her third place of 2018. Both athletes also topped their cumulative UTWT World Ranking.
A delighted Pau Capell took the 2019 title ahead of Jiasheng Shen from China. Xavier Thevenard from France and Spain’s Pablo Villa were joint third. It is the first time Asia is represented at the UTWT awards; Jiasheng Shen won Vibram HongKong100 at the age of 24, and has currently an impressive ITRA performance index of 896.
Speaking at the ceremony Capell said: “2019 has been a fantastic year for me. Thanks to my victories at the Transgrancanaria HG, Patagonia Run, mozart100® and UTMB®, I became Ultra-Trail® World Tour Champion this year. I am very happy and honored to have received the 2019 trophy and I’m really looking forward to giving my all in 2020. The new calendar includes races that I would like to run like Transgrancanaria HG and UTMB®, so in the next few weeks I will devote myself to gather the energy and motivation necessary to face the new challenges.”
Courtney Dauwalter, who won three Ultra-Trail® World Tour races this year (Tarawera Ultramarathon, Madeira Island Ultra-Trail® and UTMB®), secured the women’s title ahead of fellow American Kaytlyn Gerbin and Spain’s Maite Maiora. “I had a blast taking part in the Ultra-Trail® World Tour in 2019! Thank you to the race directors, athletes and to Ultra-Trail® World Tour for coming together to create a series of races that showcase beautiful destinations and tough competition. I am grateful to have had these opportunities to both pushes myself physically and to also learn about the world. It looks to be an exciting new calendar in 2020 and I can’t wait to be part of it!“, said Dauwalter.
Also taking centre stage at the Awards was the announcement that next season will see an expanded calendar featuring no fewer than 28 events, with new courses joining established and iconic races like the Vibram® Hong-Kong 100, Transgrancanaria HG, Madeira Island Ultra-Trail®, Ultra-Trail Australia®, La Sportiva Lavaredo Ultra Trail, Western State®100-Mile Endurance Run and UTMB® Mont-Blanc (UTMB®, TDS®, and CCC®).
The first new addition to the calendar arrives in March with the Gaoligong by UTMB® in China, while 2020 will now conclude in December in the Sultanate of Oman, with Oman by UTMB® extending the season beyond November’s Ultra-Trail® Cape Town, the 2019 finale.
“We have opened the Ultra-Trail® World Tour to new, key markets, with added events now taking place in China, France, Spain, Russia, and Oman. Finally, we have sought to simplify the ranking points scoring system by reducing the number of levels to four (vs. 5 in 2019), namely UTWT 500, UTWT 1000, UTWT 1500 and UTWT 2000. One event will be granted the UTWT 2000 status in 2020 – the UTMB® at the end of August – with guaranteed prize money for the top 10 men and women and an increase in media coverage.” said UTWT Executive Director Marie Sammons.
Also unveiled for regular participants on the Ultra-Trail® World Tour is the introduction of an e-passport (by summer 2020), which will open the door to a number of benefits for the runners, and ‘Running Stones’ which are designed to fast-track entry to the heavily over-subscribed UTMB® Mont-Blanc races. Starting in January 2020 runners who complete Ultra-Trail® World Tour races will be awarded Running Stones (1 Running Stone per ITRA point), which can be retained and used to gain direct entry to UTMB® Mont-Blanc races, avoiding the lottery.
2019 UTWT MEN’S RANKING (name/nationality/points)
1st Pau Capell/SPA/2600 (also 1st World Ranking UTWT Men)
2nd Jiasheng Shen/CHN/1865
3rd Xavier Thevenard/FR/1824 and Pablo Villa/SPA/1824
2019 UTWT WOMEN’S RANKING (name/nationality/points)
1st Courtney Dauwalter/USA/2300 (also 1st World Ranking UTWT Women)
2nd Kaytlyn Gerbin/USA/1774
3rd Maite Maiora/SPA/1750
*Full rankings: Annual Ranking 2019 & World Rankings
UTWT RACES 2020 (race/country/points/date)
1 Vibram® Hong-Kong 100/Hong-Kong/UTWT 1500/17.01.2020
2 Tarawera Ultramarathon/New Zealand/UTWT 1000/08.02.2020
3 Transgrancanaria HG/Spain/UTWT 1500/04.03.2020
4 Gaoligong by UTMB®/China/UTWT 1000/23.03.2020
5 Patagonia Run/Argentina/UTWT 500/04.04.2020
6 100 Miles of Istria/Croatia/UTWT 1000/17.04.2020
7 Penyagolosa Trails HG/Spain/UTWT 1000/18.04.2020
8 Ultra-Trail® Mount Fuji/Japan/UTWT 1000/24.04.2020
9 Madeira Island Ultra-Trail®/Portugal/UTWT 1500/25.04.2020
10 Whalers’ Great Route Ultra-Trail/Portugal/UTWT 500/08.05.2020
11 Ultra-Trail® Australia/Australia/UTWT 1500/16.05.2020
12 VVX Volvic-Volcanic Experience/France/UTWT 500/22.05.2020
13 mozart100®/Austria/UTWT 1000/20.06.2020
14 La Sportiva Lavaredo Ultra Trail/Italy/UTWT 1500/26.06.2020
15 Western State®100-Mile Endurance Run /USA/UTWT 1500/27.06.2020
16 Val d’Aran by UTMB®/Spain/UTWT 500/03.07.2020
17 Eiger Ultra-Trail®/Switzerland/UTWT 1000/19.07.2020
18 Golden Ring Ultra-Trail®/Russia/UTWT 500/19.07.2020
19 TDS® (UTMB® Mont-Blanc)/France-Italy/UTWT 1000/26.08.2020
20 UTMB® (UTMB® Mont-Blanc)/France-Italy-
21 CCC® (UTMB® Mont-Blanc)/France-Italy-
22 Harricana Ultra-Trail®/Canada/UTWT 500/13.09.2020
23 Trans Jeju/Korea/UTWT 500/10.10.2020
24 Ultra-Trail® Ninghai/China/UTWT 500/17.10.2020
25 Salomon Cappadocia Ultra-Trail®/Turkey/UTWT 1000/17.10.2020
26 Javelina Jundred/USA/UTWT 500/31.10.2020
27 Ultra-Trail® Cape Town/South Africa/UTWT 1000/28.11.2020
28 Oman by UTMB®/Sultanate of Oman/UTWT 500/03.12.2020
Runners need to have taken part in a minimum of four Ultra-Trail® World Tour races in the last 24 months to be included in the UTWT ranking, with the overall ranking recalculated from the new results from each completed event. On January 1st 2020 the single Ultra-Trail® World Tour ranking will be based on results between January 1st 2018 and December 31st 2019.