UTA50 Titles Clinched at Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB

Local athlete Ben St Lawrence was crowned UTA50 men’s winner on day three of Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB, while ACT runner Patricia McKibbin claimed the UTA50 women’s title.

St Lawrence, hailing from Hazelbrook in the Blue Mountains, finished the UTA50 course in 3:54:29, less than a minute ahead of Sydney-based Brit Ronnie Sparke, with Poland’s Piotr Babis just 30 seconds further adrift.

“It was tough, it was a really close race between the top three right from the start, the lead changed quite a lot throughout the race. Being my longest race ever there were points where I thought ‘this is easy, I’m going to smash it’ and there were other points where I thought I’m not going to make it to the finish line,” said St Lawrence.

“My strengths seem to be up the up hills, up the stairs I was able to run more than they were, and their strengths were surprisingly on the flat roads which given my background I thought I might’ve been faster at but they were faster at that today and they were quite a lot faster on the technical downhills but then we were yo-yo’ing, so they’d run faster on their sections and then I would catch back up, thankfully I caught up them just maybe with 500m left coming up Furber Steps. At the top of Furber I put down as big a surge as I could and managed to come away with the win.”

St Lawrence began running through the Blue Mountains at a young age and used every ounce of his local knowledge to pull away from second place finisher Sparke with less than a kilometre to go.

“Ronnie wasn’t one hundred percent sure of the course, he probably thought once we came up around Echo Point it was just around the top of the cliff to the finish line, so he was putting in a big surge, but I think he got a bit of shock when he came down and then had to come back up that last section of Furber, whereas I knew it was coming so possibly left enough in the tank to hit that really hard, so a bit of local knowledge is good.

“The Blue Mountains are the best, growing up here it was quite rare to see another runner out on the trails, I’ve been running up here for about 30 years now, since I was a kid, and it was very rare to see someone else out on the trails. Now all throughout the year there’s local runners, a bunch of local kids here in the 11km,” he said. “The sport has grown so much, and I think it’s going to continue growing and it’s just awesome to see. I think the best way to see the Blue Mountains is to be out on the trails running,” said St Lawrence.

Ronnie Sparke is a former Great Britain cross country runner who moved to Australia five years ago. The 32-year-old has spent time training in the Blue Mountains but was making his UTA debut.

“I feel very tired, but it was good. It felt great throughout the whole race, I had a bit of a cold this week, so I was a little bit worried that it was going to affect me but it’s all good. Pretty comfortable the whole way to be honest, I just tucked in and sat behind those two guys pretty much the whole way. I made a move at 45k, thought I was going to win it and then 1k to go, Ben stormed past me on the last few stairs. I’m not used to the distance, I’m still getting used to the ultras, so my legs were just about to give up. Great race, really competitive, super-fast sections,” said Sparke.

Like Sparke, Piotr Babis is an Australian-based European – living and training in Tasmania, representing Poland. Babis made a last-minute decision to switch from the 100km race to UTA50 to save his legs for a big project he has coming up.

“It was amazing I really didn’t see that coming, the race was so good. I’m very happy with my pacing, a very strong finish, I didn’t expect that I could keep up with those two guys. I’m not that fast, I only started running probably five years ago so I don’t have that running background,” said Babis.

“Ultra-Trail Australia is one of the biggest races in the world so being able to finish top three means a lot. I’ve won a few races and been up there in the top places but never been on the podium in a big international race, so it means a lot.”

Patricia McKibbin made a triumphant return to the UTA50 event having made her debut over the same distance last year, finishing seventh. The ACT athlete elevated herself to the top of the podium in 2022 with a dominant performance, completing the course in 4:48:17 – over seven minutes ahead of second place finisher Gemma Jenkins. Gillian Turnbull rounded out the top three women.

“It was hard work, it was a tougher course than I expected with the changes, there was still lots of single track and stairs, so it was a really nice run but very tough,” said McKibbin.

“I’ve actually raced Gemma once before and tried to stay with her on the fast sections and it didn’t end well for me, so my goal today was to let her go, I know she’s really fast on the road, so I was quite happy sitting in second. I could see her a lot of the way especially at the turnaround, but once I got to turnaround, I saw she was a reasonable distance away, so I just thought I’d run my own race, the trails are my strength so then I just came across her with eight k’s to go.

“It was beautiful, blue skies all day. I actually found the course more scenic this year because we were running up the top, beautiful views, everyone is really supportive, the volunteers were amazing, I thought it was a really awesome course,” she said.

UTA50 is a UTMB World Series 50K event, with the top three male and female runners earning direct entry into the OCC race of the UTMB Mont-Blanc in 2023.

“I’m very excited (to have qualified for the OCC), that was my goal for next year. I had already pre-entered in the ballot but luckily, I’ll get a spot this way. So exciting,” said McKibbin.

After a successful UTA McKibbin will turn her attention to the 100km at Oceania’s newest trail event, Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB in December.

UTA50 women’s second place finisher Gemma Jenkins made an incredible return to UTA, 18 months on from undergoing a hysterectomy to have a tumour removed from uterus. UTA50 was her first race over 10 kilometres since 2020.

“I actually found the course more difficult than I did in 2019 because even though the elevation wasn’t as much as the original course, doing those stairs twice is a bit of a shock to the system, they’re just relentless. I’m also coming out of adrenal fatigue from surgery I had 18 months ago,” said Jenkins.

“I was prepped to run UTA last year, I had a great lead up with plenty of training, but I kept getting hip pain and calf pain, so I went to a sports doctor and ordered an MRI of my pelvic region, and they found a huge tumour, size of a four-month foetus growing in my uterus. It was benign, nothing dangerous but everything had to come out, that was literally only a month out from UTA last year I couldn’t run more than 10km.

“I had a hysterectomy in June last year and then everything seemed to be going really well, because I kept my ovaries. I’m 42 but now I’ve headed into menopause, so my oestrogen and testosterone levels have just plummeted. I went on hormone replacement therapy eight weeks ago and it’s sort of only just started to kick in a week ago, my coach was very happy when I sent him a message saying ‘I think I‘m feeling good’. Because I was just fatigued, really, really tired all the time, so stoked to come second, stoked,” she said.

Melbourne’s Gillian Turnbull was delighted to make the podium on her UTA50 debut.

“I am so delighted, that was totally unexpected. I loved starting in start group number one because you could see all the fast ladies from the beginning so it actually felt like you were racing, especially because you knew who was in front of you and could sense people around you. Three kilometres from the end fourth place was right behind me and that was the push I needed just to keep myself honest, it was amazing,” said Turnbull.

“In my head I thought top ten, that would be amazing, but I did want to go out and just give it all. I’ve been working really hard for this, training really hard and yeah, just delighted,” she said. “This was my first time here. It was beautiful, I feel like I want to come back now and actually see it walking because I don’t think I saw enough of it, I was too busy watching my feet, being careful and trying not to fall. It was just stunning, the most beautiful, beautiful place.”

All UTA50 finishers receive two running stones - 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.

UTA50 – MEN’S TOP THREE

1. Ben St Lawrence (Hazelbrook NSW), AUS, 03:54:29
2. Ronnie Sparke (Dee Why NSW), GBR, 03:55:03
3. Piotr Babis (Cradle Mountains TAS), POL, 03:55:32

UTA50 – WOMEN’S TOP THREE

1. Patricia McKibbin (Watson ACT), AUS, 04:48:17
2. Gemma Jenkins (Greystanes NSW), AUS, 04:55:34
3. Gillian Turnbull (Melbourne VIC), AUS, 05:05:21