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Spaniards make up 2nd largest group for UTMB 2012
As it usually happens, the lastest Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc newsletter came together with a nice pack of info, in this case regarding applicants data and stats on the age and nationalities of those that strive to take on the UTMB challenge. Naturally enough, France still accounts for huge majority of applicants (56%) but Spain has now taken up 2nd place with 9% right above the Italians 8%. See below more of its conclusions
Group of spaniards before UTMB 2011, Nerea Martínez included (2nd)
Since its first race in 2003, the UTMB has been astonishingly successful with 700 runners registered, then 1600 in 2004. Since 2005, the UTMB has had to be limited to 2000 participants. In 2006 registration was completed in 3 weeks. In 2007, a system of qualifying races was introduced to reduce the number of applicants, without resorting to financial or sporting competence choices which would have been against the ethics and our wishes. Despite that, registration was completed within 10 hours! The paroxysm was reached in 2008, when registrations were completed in less than 8 minutes, with around 7000 requests for the UTMB and the CCC.
In 2009, to accommodate this craze and in trying to find solutions which respected the runners, the organisation produced a new race (the TDS), a more demanding system of qualifying races and a system of pre-registration followed by an eventual draw.
From 2010, the number of requests once again soared (7 000) for the 4 races combined.
Despite the increase of requirements in terms of qualifying races (5 points rather than 4 for the UTMB), the demands in 2011 still increased to a total of 7200.
This record has once again been beaten with a new high of 10 000 requests this year.
The 2012 UTMB applicants figures :
75 nationalities represented !
Andorra, Argentina, Albania, Australia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus Czech Republic Denmark, England, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, India, Ireland, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Moldavia, Morocco, Nepal, Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Norway, Panama, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Scotland, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, United States of America, Uruguay, Venezuela, Wales, Zimbabwe, phew!
44% of the runners are not French (40% in 2011, 38% in 2010)
This represents: 9% Spanish, 8% Italians, 5% British and, almost equally, 3% Belgium, Germans, Swiss and Japanese. We notice a rise in the number of Americans and a notable rise in the number of Polish, Portuguese and Argentinean runners.
The women? Their level of participation remains stable
8% on the UTMB
13% on the CCC
9% on the TDS
11% on the PTL
The average age increases with the distance
40,7 years old on theCCC
42,8 years old on the TDS
43,2 years old on the UTMB
45,5 years old on the PTL
54% of participants will be competing in one of the The North Face Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc events for the first time:
UTMB® : 43% – CCC® : 76% – TDS : 36% – PTL : 24%
Clic here for further info on the 4 Ultra Trail Mont Blanc races 2008-2011 as seen by a spaniard
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FURTHER INFO ABOUT TRAIL RUNNING SPAIN 2012.
Key trail races & trail runners in Spain 2012
Results Trail Races Spain 2012
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Info by Mayayo Oxígeno for Trailrunningspain
