UTA22 Winners Crowned

Australians dominated the podium places on day two of the 2022 event, with the top three male and female athletes in the UTA22 event hailing from New South Wales or Queensland.

Charlestown’s Ingrid Cleland claimed the UTA22 women’s title in 1:32:49. Less than minute behind her was Lucy Holman, who had been leading the race at the halfway point, with Sarah-Jayne Miller a further minute behind in third.

“It was a beautiful day, I think the conditions were actually lovely and when you could look up the views were just spectacular, it was amazing. I found it harder than I expected, I thought it didn’t sound that bad with the elevation, but it was quite tough. But I loved it, volunteers were awesome, really supportive, everyone did a great job,” said Cleland.

“The volunteers were saying ‘first female’, so that was making me run scared most of the way trying to hold on to it.”

The 43-year-old returned to UTA for the first time since 2019 and will back up her UTA22 win tomorrow when she takes on the 100km course.

“Next time I’ll do more stair training,” she laughed. “It’s so amazing to be back here, that mountain air is something else.”

Robbie Begg, from Fairlight in Sydney, took the win in the men’s race, kicking on from second place finisher Courtney Atkinson over the last five kilometres to complete the course in 1:16:23. The top three were separated by just over two minutes, with Liam Mckenzie rounding out the podium.

“It was good, a beautiful course as always, you want to take in the views and everything. Went out pretty well and then Courtney smashed everyone on the downhills, and I was sort of resigned to the fact that he just going to start tearing away but I sort of surprised myself that I managed to catch him on the trail and we sat together for a little while and then I managed to pull ahead at certain points, and then with 5km left to go I put the hammer down really,” said Begg.

“I noticed he (Courtney) was breathing pretty hard coming up some of the climbs, so I tried to stay consistent, keep the heart rate as comfortable as possible and then once we got onto some flatter sections I started to increase the speed a little and slowly snapped the elastic and then just had to hold on for that last three or four k.”

Begg says he was determined to give UTA a proper crack after taking it easy last year while nursing an injury.

“It’s my second run, I did it last year, I had an injury so just sort of ran for fun last year and had a good time, and I was determined to come back this year and give it a good crack, so I’m glad we got to race.

“It’s definitely undulating, that first 10km was hard to get into a rhythm, but it’s all psychological right, you just keep going k by k and break the race down step by step and that’s what I did,” he said. “It’s beautiful, always lovely. Look at the weather, it’s amazing.”

Two-time triathlon Olympian Atkinson was leading the race at the halfway point of UTA22 but was eventually reeled in and overtaken by Begg.

“I’m getting in the habit, every time I’ve run UTA22 I keep getting second, different person each time as well which now kind of makes me think I’ve got to come back again. The course changes probably suited me having the road a little bit earlier because I hurt my ankle a while back pretty bad, so the technical stuff probably wasn’t my strength which it usually is, so a bit of that triathlon road pace helped out,” said Atkinson.

“I thought I broke the rubber band of Robbie, but he was strong in that second half, and he came through. It doesn’t matter if you run out here on the road or up through the hard trails, once you hit those last steps you’ve got to be strong, you’ve got to be going uphill well and it’s such a tough race, but it’s just good to be back in the Blue Mountains running again.”

Third place finisher Mckenzie was making his UTA debut and can be happy with his first performance. The 32-year-old will race again tomorrow in the 50km event.

“I always come to win, but you never know who is racing. I had a pretty good battle with guys up top but in the end they were just too strong, so yeah happy to get on the podium today and just put some more work in for next year,” said Mckenzie.

“It was great, a really fast course. My main strengths are on trails and stairs, so I was holding back a little bit on the start and then was able to make up some places on the back but yeah, really good technical sections towards then end which was nice, and just beautiful to be back in the Blue Mountains,” he said. “It’s amazing. This place is such a special place, with the aboriginal significance and the community and the trails, I really appreciate being out here in the Blue Mountains.”

UTA22 is a UTMB World Series 20K event, with finishers receiving 1 running stone - the only way to enter the lottery for the first-ever UTMB World Series Finals, which will take place in the UTMB, CCC and OCC races of the UTMB Mont-Blanc in 2023.

UTA22 – MEN’S TOP THREE

1. Robbie Begg (Fairlight NSW), AUS, 01:16:23
2. Courtney Atkinson (Mermaid Waters QLD), AUS, 01:18:05
3. Liam McKenzie (Newport NSW), AUS, 01:18:34

UTA22 – WOMEN’S TOP THREE

1. Ingrid Cleland (Charlestown NSW), AUS, 01:32:49
2. Lucy Holman (Kiama NSW), AUS, 01:33:33
3. Sarah-Jayne Miller (Annandale QLD), AUS, 01:34:30