Hartmuth and Esmiol win the Madeira Island Ultra-Trail on a course restored after fire
Hartmuth led the 110 km from the start and won by nearly an hour in 14:54:59; Esmiol ran 12:49:03 across the island from Porto Moniz to Machico.
Photograph: The trail to Pico Ruivo, Madeira, the high point of the MIUT course, by Asurnipal, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsThe 17th Madeira Island Ultra-Trail started at midnight on Saturday in Porto Moniz, on the island's north-west corner, and crossed to Machico in the east: 110 km with about 7,200 m of climbing, over Pico Ruivo, the island's 1,862 m high point, at the 69 km checkpoint. Last year the course was rerouted after a severe wildfire. This year, after trail repairs, it was back to nearly the normal line through the laurel forest.
Katharina Hartmuth of Germany led the women's race from the start. By the 30 km checkpoint she was more than an hour ahead of seventh place, and she finished in 14:54:59. Helen Mino Faukner of the United States was second for most of the day and held it to the line in 15:50:00. Canada's Jazmine Lowther was third in 15:54:22 after a push in the final 13 km. Hartmuth had skipped the race in 2023 for the Trail World Championships and withdrawn in 2024 after being hit by a car while cycling.
Vincent Esmiol of France, 28, from Sisteron, led from the Pico Ruivo checkpoint and had about eight minutes in hand at Larano, 96 km. He won in 12:49:03. Gautier Airiau was second in 12:57:52 and Tyler Green of the United States third in 13:03:10 after passing Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz late. Esmiol won the Échappée Belle last year, breaking François D'Haene's record there.
MIUT was the fifth race of the 2026 World Trail Majors, with five distances over the weekend from 17 km up.
Seven thousand metres of climbing in one night and a day. Hartmuth ran it alone from the first kilometre and was never caught.
Sources: iRunFar; Référence Trail; iRunFar.
