Runner Vietnam finished fourth in the Ultra Trail du Mont-Blanc
The Sapa female runner finished at Chamonix late on the evening of September 1, according to local time, with a parameter of 12 hours 38 minutes 28 seconds, ranked fourth in the women's category and 34th overall in the 100km distance. This is the first time an athlete from Southeast Asia has entered the top 10 of UTMB.
The female champion of this distance is Norwegian athlete Yngvild Kaspersen with a record of 11 hours 51 minutes 22 seconds. The runner-up position belongs to Zimbabwean runner Emily Hawgood with 12 hours, 28 minutes and 19 seconds. American runner Helen Mino Faukner, 23 seconds faster than Ha Thi Hau, closed the top 3 at 12 hours 38 minutes 05 seconds.
During the 100km race, Ha Thi Hau made many impressive accelerations. With strong jumps on the mountain's edge and gentle jumps, the girl, who is familiar with the dangerous mountainous roads in her hometown of Lao Cai, even surpassed the world's top trail runners many times to take the lead. head of the racing group.
At the 70 km check-point, Ha Thi Hau still held the third place and competed fiercely with Helen Faukner. Even though he could not stand on the podium, fourth place was still an encouraging result for this runner in his first participation in the most prestigious trail race on the planet.
UTMB, established in 2003, is considered the pinnacle tournament, a "World Cup" of the trail running world, gathering top trail and mountain road runners from around the world. To qualify to compete, athletes must accumulate points from races that are part of UTMB's scoring system.
Held in the last week of August or early September, UTMB's longest distance is 171km with a total ascent of about 10,000 meters. UTMB usually starts from Chamonix (France), goes around in the Alps, surrounds Mont Blanc, crosses the borders of France, Switzerland, Italy. The 100km distance of this year's UTMB 2023 has 2,406 athletes competing, going through three peaks of Courmayeur - Champex - Chamonix with a total elevation of more than 6,100 meters.
By this morning, September 2, at the 100 km distance, only 479 runners had reached the finish line, and more than 500 people gave up (DNF). More than 1,000 remaining runners are still diligently conquering the race track. On average every year, UTMB's DNF rate is very high, up to 42% (2016), 35% (2017), or 35% (2021). The COT (cut-off time) of the 100 km distance is 26 hours 30 minutes.
Ha Thi Hau is a new face at Vietnamese running events, but is considered a "superwoman of the running village". She started practicing in 2020, after her free time in Sapa. However, the runner born in 1989 quickly became the champion at 70km Vietnam Trail Marathon, 100km Vietnam Mountain Marathon, 50km UTA Australia of UTMB, 35km XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship...
Not only is she the "trail running queen", Ha Thi Hau also conquered long-distance running events. She twice won the full marathon distance (42km) on the MetaSports Marathon system in Ha Long and Ho Chi Minh City.
