17-05-2025
Daniel Jones, Caitlin Fielder win UTA50 at Ultra-Trail Australia
Jones is preparing to take on some of the best trail runners in the world at Western States in America at the end of June.
'I'm right in the depths of a big build now so I didn't taper off too much, it looked like a pretty big week as well with this 50km tucked in at the end of it,' he said.
The women's race was a tighter affair, with Rotorua local Fielder finishing four minutes ahead of fellow Kiwi Alison Wilson, with Demi Caldwell of Australia just behind to round out the podium.
'I'm pretty happy to be done but thrilled to have won the race, it was pretty tough to be honest but I'm super happy,' Fielder said.
'It started off pretty quick with everyone along the way and then I just tried to run my own race but I heard that Alison was closing in pretty hard in the end there which made me pretty panicky, I had a few moments along the way, I dropped my sunglasses in the waterfall, stopped and looked for them but they had shot off, it was cool out there though.'
Fielder enjoyed her first trip to UTA, including mixing it up with UTAMiler runners who were in the final stages of their 100 mile event.
'I was having a pretty good time up until the last 10k and then I felt like I chucked it and reversed a little bit. But honestly, it was really cool with all the Milers out there, just getting some encouragement from them and just also seeing how well they were going. It was just super motivating,' she said.
Thousands of runners are out on the Blue Mountains trails, with UTA50 and UTA100 starting on Saturday morning while UTAMiler athletes are continuing their 100 mile journey.
UTA50 – Men's Results
1 – Daniel Jones – 4:01:19
2 – Miguel Benitez – 4:11:38
3 – Sam Rout – 4:19:28
4 – Toby Sparkes – 4:24:37
5 – Vlad Ixel – 4:25:08
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6 – David Haunschmidt – 4:26:35
7 – Thomas Banks – 4:28:15
8 – Andrew Gatenby – 4:29:34
9 – Nicholas Ignacio Benavides Bohle – 4:36:44
10 – Luke Wilson – 4:41:42
UTA50 – Women's Results
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1 – Caitlin Fielder – 5:02:27
2 – Alison Wilson – 5:06:35
3 – Demi Caldwell – 5:07:47
4 – Jessica Jason – 5:24:03
5 – Annabelle Bramwell – 5:26:06
6 – Hannah Wall – 5:31:42
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7 – Jessica Clayden – 5:44:01
8 – Gillian Turnbull – 5:51:42
9 – Ashley O'Loughlin – 5:51:47
10 – Greta Truscott – 5:52:00
