The 100km distance race at the 2022 Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB will get underway in the Blue Mountains, with the event arguably attracting the strongest elite men's field since 2019.
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New Zealand's Scotty Hawker heads into the race on Saturday, October 29 as the highest ranked male in Oceania and one of the favourites to take home the UTA100 title.
Hawker has had a strong season so far, with five race wins and four course records at both domestic and overseas races. His most recent win came earlier this month in New Zealand at the Crater Rim Ultra 30km.
Yet despite his successes, UTA comes at a good time for Hawker who has spent the past couple of months coming to terms with the disappointment of not being able to finish UTMB in August after a picking up a virus before the race.
"I've been feeling good in training the past few weeks. I picked up COVID on the way back from Europe in mid-September, so things were a little slow getting back to full fitness but I'm excited to race again," said Hawker.
"It's been a great season so far with five race wins and four course records at races in New Zealand, France and Andorra," he said.
"Originally UTA fit in well with my season plans to race in May, so I was super excited to get back to the Blue Mountains and race again. After a virus derailed my 2022 UTMB in France I was then looking for a long race to bounce back at and UTA100 fit perfectly being in October."
Hawker has raced at UTA three times before but not since 2016. His best performance to date at the event was in 2015 when he came second in the 100km. Since then, the 27-year-old has grabbed the attention of the trail running world with statement podium finishes at the prestigious UTMB, finishing second in 2019 and third in the CCC in 2021.
Back in Blue Mountains
The Kiwi says he's excited to get back to the Blue Mountains for another shot at the UTA100 title and put the disappointment of this year's UTMB behind him.
"It's been over 12 months for me since finishing a race longer than 60km, so it'll be interesting to see how the body holds up. I'm excited to be back in the Blue Mountains, somewhere I loved living for two years and seeing friends and family there again," said Hawker.
Brisbane's Ben Duffus is the top ranked Australian set to challenge Hawker for the UTA100 crown.
Duffus first attempted this race 10 years ago, unable to finish on that occasion. The event has been full of up and downs since then, with the 30-year-old finishing runner-up twice before posting another DNF last year when he rolled his ankle while leading the race.
Ready for challenge
"I'm feeling excited to be back at UTA and looking forward to the challenge," said Duffus. "This will be my seventh time lining up for UTA100, so I'll be focusing more on the races that have gone well than the ones that didn't. I think one of the biggest learnings from repeating the same race several times has been just where that fine line lies between what is sustainable and what isn't. Ultimately, we're just trying to push as close to our limits as we can without pushing too far and going past the breaking point."
Duffus has achieved multiple event wins in Australia over the past couple of years but 2022 has been a difficult year so far. The Queenslander's best result of the season came in July at The Guzzler where he claimed victory in the 21km Big Sipper.
"2022 has been a tough year for me after it took a few months to fully recover from COVID back in March. However, there have been some promising signs in training and I'm finally feeling back to full health," said Duffus.
With little racing this year, Duffus said he is focused on running UTA100 to the best of his ability rather than pursuing a specific result.
"To be honest, I'm focusing much more on the process of running my best possible race than on what position that lands me. If I can come away satisfied with the effort I put in and how I handled the challenges that came up, then I'll consider that a successful day," he said.
Polish contender
Tasmania-based Polish athlete Piotr Babis is another contender in the men's UTA100. The 32-year-old was unable to finish the race last year due to a sprained ankle but has many wins and podiums in smaller Australian and European events.
"It has been a long season. UTA was my priority race for 2022 so when it got postponed, I had to change a few things around. Regardless, the training has been good, and I am feeling strong," said Babis.
"I stayed away from injuries and had a few really good races. I managed to finally travel back to Poland and race one of the events there, I had two races on the mainland and a few more in Tasmania," he said.
Another athlete that could shake up the podium is Newcastle's Vlad Shatrov, who hasn't put together a complete performance yet at UTA but comes into the event off the back of winning the 100-mile race at the Brisbane Trail Ultra in September.
Completing the impressive start list for the men's UTA100 is New Zealand's Sam McCutcheon, Australian trio Mike Carrol, Morgan Pilley, and Matthew Crehan, Spain's Cristofer Clemente, and Sweden's Morgan Lindqvist.
UTA100 begins from 6.20am on October 29, with UTA50 following just minutes later at 6.32am. Preceding those two events are UTA11 on Thursday, October 27 from 12pm and UTA22 on Friday, October 28 from 6.20am. All races start and finish at the Katoomba Christian Centre Oval in Katoomba.
For more information visit www.ultratrailaustralia.com.au
