Michael Dunstan and Katarzyna Dombrowska win the UTA100 in the Blue Mountains
Dunstan ran the 100 km in 9:04:19 after his heart-rate monitor died at the front; Dombrowska led almost all day and held on up the Furber Steps for 10:50:55.
The UTA100 is the last race of the Ultra-Trail Australia weekend in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales: 100 km of runnable trail, kangaroos beside it, and a great many stairs, ending with the 951 Furber Steps up to the finish. The 2026 edition was run on Saturday 16 May.
Michael Dunstan of Australia paced the first half conservatively and moved to the front around 56 km. His heart-rate monitor then stopped working, so he ran the second half on feel, with China's Guidu Qin pushing him all the way. Dunstan finished in 9:04:19, Qin in 9:09:41, and Adrian Macdonald of the United States was third in 9:32:47. George Knight, 9:56:40, and Rhett Gibson, 10:04:48, completed the top five.
Katarzyna Dombrowska of Poland controlled the women's race for most of the day and then nearly lost it on the Furber Steps, where she lay down for close to five minutes and watched the gap to Beth McKenzie shrink. She got up and finished in 10:50:55; McKenzie, of the United States, was second in 10:55:49. Emilie Mann of Canada was third in 11:24:47, with Julia Grant of New Zealand and Tamami Arai of Japan next.
Earlier in the weekend Daniel Jones and Miao Yao won the UTA50, and the UTA Miler went to Aleksei Tolstenko and Antonina Iushina, whose 19:51:13 is a course best.
Ninety-nine kilometres of racing and then 951 steps. The race is honest about where it ends.
Sources: Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB; Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB.
