Brisbane Trail Ultra - Spartan Trail World Championship Race Report
Sara Alonso Martinez (Spain) - STWC Trail Leader - BTU30 New Record Holder.
Brisbane Trail Ultra (BTU) - Spartan Trail World Championship (STWC) 8th, 9th and 10th of July attracted a solid field of international and Australian National runners. Records fell, and podiums were filled with Spanish (BTU60, BTU30), New Caledonian (BTU30), Italian (BTU10), Canadian (BTU10) and Australian Trail Runners, including runners from WA, VIC, ACT, NSW, TAS, and QLD, to take home the most generous prize pool in Australian Trail Running History.
The race organisers tackled course changes due to potential planned burns, Telstra Outage On the Mountain where you couldn’t even buy a coffee with Eftpos, Cash Only on the Mountain! No GPS Coverage, No Internet, No 3G Service, and a total ADSL outage, which explained why the GPS trackers weren’t moving as well on the course. Live tracking wasn’t uploading as it has usually done previously. We found out the full story on Monday what had happened when we were talking to the locals about the issues with communications on the Mountain.
Cora and her operations room team were required to move to a better location which was down to Corra-Mulling park in the middle of the race to make sure we had comms for the remainder of the event. The move was crucial to make sure we had the communication plan in place for the event, especially for the second night. On top of this the ops room battled with course tampering, in three separate locations and four separate incidences. We also worked around covid-affected staffing. Still, the Brisbane Trail Ultra pulled together thanks to our amazing volunteer legends and the trail running community to host a slick show for “It's Live In Queensland” international guests with a pumping finish line bar at the iconic Joey’s Cafe with an impressive tab for everyone to enjoy!
We dared to be different and be the pioneers in Queensland by going LIVE for the first time from Kangaroo Cliffs. With our amazing back from the Brisbane City Skyline in the background, this turned out to be a total hit. Massive thank you to Element Photography Team, Jodie Oborne and Ben Dennien for hosting our BTU2022 Live Channel. You can check it out on our Facebook Page.
Vlad Shatrov (NSW) wins the BTU100Mi
First Up - BTU100Mi
BTU100Mi, 168km, with around 7500 Vert, was won by BTU 2019 BTU110 Winner, and previous BTU110 record holder, Vlad Shatrov (NSW) with an impressive 20:21:08, followed by Drew Beswick (TAS) 20:48:54, Brisbane Based David Vroom in 3rd Place 22:29:11. Sunshine Coast podium regular Ryan Crawford 23:56:11 in 4th Place, and rounding out the male podium, Brisbane local, Anthony Hayward 26:34:31.
Maree Connor (NSW) - BTU100Mi Only Female Finisher 2022.
BTU100Mi women's field was decimated pre-event with injuries and covid, as well as on the day the bitterly cold conditions where the temperatures dropped close to 0 degrees C overnight. Only one female finished in the BTU100Mi, last year's winner and current record holder Maree Connor, finishing in 27:51:20; she was three hours behind her 2021 time of 23:29:50, having to walk the last 70kms to get the result. It proves that you have to be in it to win it, and the race isn't over until it is over. Maree said she just didn’t have top gear, she’d just recently run an Australian 24 Hour Track race with an amazing 211km. We know a few elite female runners are looking at this result, kicking themselves, knowing that if they gave it a go and toughed it out, they would have finished on the podium and in the prize money.
Jen Millum from WA takes 1st place at the BTU110.
BTU110 - with 4520 vertical Gain.
The BTU Awarded $5,000 in prize money, thanks to Australian Expatriate Finance and The Expatriate. Again the female line up was hampered by recent covid infections and injuries, leaving the race for the podium prize money wide open to any female who wanted to give it a go. Western Australian Runner Jen Millum bettered her 2021 2nd place by winning in 16:00:13, Ursula Adams (NSW) 2nd 16:43:00, Katrina Baker (NSW) 16:44:48.
Mike Carroll (ACT) Breaks the record in the BTU110 on the contingency course.
The male lineup was impressive, with 2021 winner Mike Carroll smashing the BTU110 Record on a longer 2022 course, with a fantastic 11:09:31. He was faster than Vlad Shatrov 2019 time of 11:18:27. Mike was over 2 hours ahead of Matt Gore (NSW) 13:25:42 who had some navigational difficulties at CP5, and also ahead of Alexis Hastings (NSW) 15:29:26. We chatted to Mike post-event, and he said he just worked his hills to give himself a massive PB of 23 minutes! Massive tip for anyone wanting to kick butt at the BTU.
Marcos Pascoe (Spain) leading the BTU60, finishes 2nd overall.
BTU60 course had a massive 2400 Vertical Gain and kicked off with New South Welshman Iain Best winning the Male event at 6:15:40, with the Spanish Young Gun Marcos Pascual Martín, 6:20:18, and Lachlan Jamieson 2020 BTU30 winner stepped up to take the last male podium prize in the BTU60. Trail running legend and Team La Sportiva Australia and AURA representative Gill Fowler (NSW) decided to play it safe and race the BTU60 and took line honours with 7:21:02. BTU podium regular and Sunshine Coast runner Carol Robertson came in 2nd, 7:46:09, and 3rd (NSW) Runner Ellen Bradley, 7:48:13.
Gill Fowler team La Sportiva wins the BTU60
The race to watch was the BTU30 featuring the Spanish elites Sara Alonso Martinez and Antonio Martinez Perez, lining up with local runner and Queensland Steeple Chase representative Aidan Hobbs.
Aidan backed up after his impressive run at the Gold Coast Marathon and led the field until the last 7km, where he missed a turn which allowed for 2021 Spartan Trail World Champion Antonio Martinez Pérez to take 1st Place. The Spanish National Trail Running Representative raced to the top of the Suunto Climb in 2:03:07. He was around three minutes behind Aidan's time in 2021 on the Suncorp Contingency course. Antonio now moves into 1st Place in the STWC. It shows the depth in the Australian trail running in the STWC Trail event. Victorian Brodie Nankervis placed 3rd 2:06:23, followed by Polish Born, and Tassie located Pietro Babis jumping on a plane to Poland post-event to compete in the Polish National Trail Championship; he then paced his training buddies Drew Beswick into 2nd Place in the BTU100Mi. Italian Gabriele Fior, 2:28:55, won 5th Place.
Antonio Martinez Pérez, chasing down 2021 winner and record holder Aidan Hobbs.
The belle of the ball was Sara Alonso Martinez, the current leader of the STWC and the Golden Trail Series Leader. Sara is an absolute gun and a pleasure to welcome down under, straight from her Mont Blanc Marathon win, Zegama 3rd place and eyeing up placing 1st across two series. She led from the start, finishing 5th Place overall and lifting the field of female runners. Sara was faster on the longer contingency course, 2:15:04 and taking 24 minutes off the previous female record set by UTA100 Winner Cecilia Mattas. The top three podium winners (VIC) Simone Brick, 2:30:51, also backed up and paced her friend in the BTU100Mi. 3rd Place was (ACT) Patricia McKibbin, 2:36:42, were all under the 2021 course record time, VIC Anna Munro came in 4th at 2:43:18, and New Caledonian Déborah Kaboer came in 5th with 2:53:10.
Sara Alonso Martinez places 5th overall, 1st Female and smashes the female record of the BTU30.
The new course for the BTU10 starting and finishing at CP6 on Mount Coot-Tha was a hit, with regular podium winner Luke Davison (QLD) 1st Place 48:40, Philip Scott 54:47 (QLD), and young rising star Daniel Keenan 56:41 (QLD) . The women’s were Donna Henderson (QLD) 1:04:48 closely followed by Tegan Daly 1:05:08 and Leyden Fiona 1:10:48.
Canadian Emmanuelle Chaput places 1st in the and is 18 years old! Huge future for this pocket rocket.
Finally to close the BTU- 2022 we have the BTU20 on Sunday Morning. We had two Canadians feature on our podiums, with Emmanuelle Chaput (CAN) taking out 1st place at 1:57:19, 2nd Heidi Storer (QLD) 2:05:40, Véronique Chenier (CAN) 2:07:58. For the men the male record was smashed by young gun Jeremy Hunt 1:28:21, followed by William Nicol 1:55:03 and in the final podium place for the Brisbane Trail Ultra Festival is Gary Ernst 1:57:05.
BTU - Red Bull Climb was won by Aidan Hobbs 7:18 and the Female winner was Jessica Ronan in 9:48, this was a shorter course by 800m clocking a total distance of 1500m. Sara Alonso Martínez didn’t run over the timing mat!
We are reviewing the times for the BTU- Suunto Climb, stay tuned for this announcement. We have also Age Group Category Awards for Spartan Trail World Championship Events for the BTU100Mi and BTU30 connect with Shona and she will give you your award.
The Brisbane Trail Ultra is a special event. We go the extra mile on so many fronts to create a special experience and that only happens with the help of all the volunteers. We are so happy with how the event ran, considering the challenges we faced throughout the day on the mountain. We can’t thank the volunteers enough. Watch this space for well-deserved special thank you newsletter to all the volunteers who helped during the 36-hour event. From registration to pack down, stay tuned for the newsletter where we give you the behind-the-scenes recap of how the event went and how instrumental the volunteers were to help keep you all safe, naming key volunteers who remarked the course.
We’d like to do a quick shout-out to All American Wheeling with our Remote Athletes Support, Plus all the Running Groups, Geoff Russell from TRAQ, Colin and Kylie Springfield Runners Group, Jane and Grant from Bunyaville Trail Runners and Bunya Belles, Erman from K2 Base Camp and team, Leanne from White Rock Warriors, Cheryl from AAA Racing, Linda from Brisbane Trail Runners, Craig 42 for 42/Veteran Trails and of course Mora our finish line manager with Elaine and with River City Runners helping us out too with the amazing Sam Moore and Leigh Richmond. So many more people helped out
