On a wet day and on muddy trails in New Zealand, Kiwis Ruth Croft and Daniel Jones received the 2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k. It was the fourth win on the race for each. Croft earlier received in 2025, 2024, and 2021, and Jones has received in every of the final three years. Course situations prevented any information, however Croft received in 8:41:11, and Jones completed in 7:31:27.
Ruth Croft crosses the road because the 2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k girls’s winner for the fourth time. Photograph: Tarawera by UTMB
A Māori ceremony despatched runners off at 7:00 a.m. native time on Saturday, February 14, in Kawerau, they usually ran level to level previous 5 lakes, together with Lake Tarawera, to a end in Rotorua. Alongside the best way, the course gained 7,500 toes (2,300 meters), principally throughout two large climbs in the course of the race. It’s summer season within the Southern Hemisphere, and temperatures had been heat, however in a single day and race day rain left the paths moist and sloppy.
Greater than 5,500 runners took half within the race’s seventeenth version throughout its 5 completely different race distances. Tarawera by UTMB is New Zealand’s largest ultramarathon, and the 102-kilometer distance was once more a Western States 100 Golden Ticket race. The highest two ladies and men every earned an automated entry to June’s Western States 100. There was prize cash too. The race paid $1,500 to the winner, $1,000 to the runner-up, and $750 to the third-place finisher.
Learn on to see how each races unfolded.
Daniel Jones ran alone for a lot of the 2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k on his technique to his fourth-straight win. Photograph: Tarawera by UTMB
2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k Ladies’s Race
It’s a flat and quick begin, and Beth McKenzie (U.S.) once more seemed to push the early miles. A 12 months in the past, McKenzie was alone on this stretch, en path to a third-place end, however this 12 months Honoka Akiyama (Japan) and 2025 sixth-placer Juliette Soule (New Zealand) flanked her on the entrance of the race.
Akiyama wished to go even quicker, although, and she or he reached the outlet of Lake Tarawera at mile 17 (28 kilometers) first in 2:03, almost 90 seconds quicker than McKenzie’s cut up from 2025. Race favorites Ruth Croft (New Zealand) and Caitlin Fielder (New Zealand) had been transferring faster than in 2025, too, and ran in second and third, roughly 36 seconds behind Akiyama. McKenzie was on her tempo from 2025, however fourth right here at mile 17. Nevertheless, early tempo pushers McKenzie would drop whereas Soule would end off aggressive pacing.
Akiyama, the Twelfth-place finisher ultimately 12 months’s Path World Championships Lengthy Path contest, led previous thundering 213-foot Tarawera Falls, however by the point they reached the marathon mark at Otamuri, Croft was in entrance, and the primary three girls had been inside a minute of one another.
Caitlin Fielder finishes second on the 2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k. Photograph: Tarawera by UTMB
After which, identical to final 12 months, because the course received hillier, Croft made her profitable transfer. She knocked out the race’s first large climb and got here into the Okataina checkpoint at 35 miles (58k) alone within the lead. Fielder overtook the early chief, too, and now chased about 4 minutes again in second. Akiyama was in third, about one other three minutes again.
The race’s second large climb got here quickly after, and Croft and Fielder prolonged their hole on the remainder of the sphere. By the Millar Street checkpoint at mile 45 (73k), Croft had made it into the general prime 10. She’d been racing for six:08 and was now seven minutes up on Fielder, who was additionally seven minutes up on third-place Akiyama. Holly Ranson (Australia) and Katie Asmuth (U.S.) had been fourth and fifth and nonetheless very a lot within the Golden Ticket chase. McKenzie had exited the race with an ankle damage.
Though Fielder would eat somewhat into Croft’s lead late, these entrance three — Croft, Fielder, and Akiyama — would maintain their positions the remainder of the best way.
Ruth Croft earned her third straight win right here in 8:41:11, and Caitlin Fielder was a repeat second-place finisher in 8:45:35. Croft’s course file from 2025 stands at 8:24:31. Honoka Akiyama completed third in 9:00:24.
Croft, the 2022 Western States 100 winner, handed up her Golden Ticket, and Fielder is already on this 12 months’s Western States, having completed eighth in 2025, because the occasion invitations the highest 10 finishers to return the subsequent 12 months. Honoka Akiyama completed in third in 9:00:24, and Holly Ransom completed fourth in 9:17:50, and each obtained Golden Tickets.
(From 2016 to 2018, Beth McKenzie (née Gerdes) served a two-year doping sanction after testing optimistic on the 2016 Ironman Australia for ostarine, a prohibited selective androgen receptor modulator (SARM).)
2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k Ladies’s Outcomes
- Ruth Croft (New Zealand) – 8:41:11
- Caitlin Fielder (New Zealand) – 8:45:35
- Honoka Akiyama (Japan) – 9:00:24
- Holly Ranson (Australia) – 9:17:50
- Katie Asmuth (U.S.) – 9:37:47
- Zoe Manning (Australia) – 9:43:24
- Annie Myrvang (U.S.) – 10:08:25
- Juliette Soule (New Zealand) – 10:19:11
- Stephanie Auston (Australia) – 10:19:45
- Lucy Bartholomew (Australia) – 10:40:11
Ruth Croft operating by the forest on her technique to profitable the 2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k. Photograph: Tarawera by UTMB
2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k Males’s Race
Daniel Jones (New Zealand) was a marked man. Going for his fourth-straight win, the challengers lined up behind him within the early miles. Petter Engdahl (Sweden), Jia-Sheng Shen (China), and Jacob Banta (U.S.) had been among the many closest chasers, and the highest 10 had been all inside 4 minutes of one another on the mile 17 checkpoint (28 kilometers).
Nobody was going to offer Jones the win, although. Possibly it was only a rest room break, however one thing occurred between the second and third hour of racing, and at Otamuri, roughly the marathon mark at mile 26 (42k), Jones was again in sixth. As an alternative, Banta had the lead in 2:56, and he was over three minutes forward of the defending champ. Nicholas Handel (U.S.) was in second, simply over a minute behind the lead.
Because the entrance group headed into the race’s first large climb, the upset potential on the entrance turned out to be very short-lived. By the point they had been up and over, Jones had already regained the lead, and he’d be fully alone the remainder of the race.
It was raining once more as he got here into the Okataina checkpoint at 35 miles (58k) within the lead, and with 4:05 elapsed time. He was 5 minutes behind his course file cut up from a 12 months in the past. Mud-caked legs on all the runners confirmed that it wasn’t going to be a course-record day. Among the many favorites, Engdahl was struggling and now in seventeenth. He’d drop from the race shortly thereafter.
Jacob Banta finishes second on the 2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k. Photograph: Tarawera by UTMB
Jones opened a 17-minute lead into the Millar Street checkpoint at mile 45 (73k), and Banta and Handel had been vying for the remaining podium spots by the race’s center third. Jones already had an entry to Western States from his fifth-place end in 2025, so if he had been to win, third place would additionally obtain a Golden Ticket. Banta and Handel weren’t unfamiliar with one another. That they had raced one another at California’s 28-mile Quad Dipsea in November 2025, too, when Handel received and set a brand new course file, 16 minutes forward of Banta. Behind the 2 People, Max Yanzick (New Zealand) was solely two minutes behind Handel in fourth, and Janosch Kowalczyk (Germany) was fifth and solely one other couple of minutes again. Yanzick was fourth within the 50k race right here final 12 months, and Kowalczyk is a earlier Golden Ticket winner by putting third on the 2023 Black Canyon 100k.
Banta gained one other 4 minutes on third-place Handel into Lake Tikitapu at mile 52 (84k), almost securing his second-place end with roughly 10 miles to go, however Handel’s Golden Ticket was in bother. Yanzick was closing onerous and flipped a couple of 45-second deficit to Handel at mile 52 to greater than a two-minute lead at mile 58. With Golden Tickets and prize cash to be earned, Banta, Yanzick, and Handel had been second, third, and fourth coming into the race’s ultimate miles.
Daniel Jones received the 2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k in 7:31:27. His course file from 2025 stands at 7:17:42.
Jacob Banta positioned himself close to the entrance early and didn’t cease till he completed second in 7:57:39.
Max Yanzick’s late-race cost vaulted him onto the rostrum in third at 8:01:56, and Nick Handel held onto fourth in 8:07:43. Janosch Kowalcyzk was solely 19 seconds behind Handel in fifth at 8:08:02.
Given Jones had already secured his Western States 100 entry, the 2 Golden Tickets to Western States rolled right down to second-place Banta and third-place Yanzick.
2026 Tarawera by UMTB 102k Males’s Outcomes
- Daniel Jones (New Zealand) – 7:31:27
- Jacob Banta (U.S.) – 7:57:39
- Max Yanzick (New Zealand) – 8:01:56
- Nick Handel (U.S.) – 8:07:43
- Janosch Kowalczyk (Germany) – 8:08:02
- Jia-Sheng Shen (China) – 8:28:35
- Michael Voss (New Zealand) – 8:30:12
- Gary Carleton (New Zealand) – 8:31:12
- Cole Watson (U.S.) – 8:34:35
- Leonard Terry (UK) – 8:48:37
Daniel Jones wins the 2026 Tarawera by UTMB 102k. Photograph: Tarawera by UTMB
