Ailsa MacDonald dominates at Tarawera 100-mile

Ailsa MacDonald of St. Albert, Alta. has won the Tarawera 100-mile ultra in New Zealand, finishing third overall with a time of 18:10:29, four hours ahead of the next-fastest female. In typically modest fashion, the 39-year-old, whose victory comes less than a month after she won the Bandera 100K in Texas, told a local news outlet, “It is pretty amazing, I am pretty happy, I wasn’t expecting this today, this is a surprise.”

Ailsa Macdonald maintaining the women's lead in the #TUM100miler through the Isthmus Aid Station at 46km. pic.twitter.com/pRTdA0PDa7

— Tarawera Ultramarathon (@taraweraultra) February 7, 2020

Caroline Sebert of France finished second, in 22:14:21, followed by local New Zealander Sue Crowley in third, in 22:28:28. A sub-30 finish at Tarawera qualifies runners for Western States, but MacDonald is already going, thanks to her win at Bandera.

RELATED: Canada’s Ailsa Macdonald wins Bandera 100K

The men’s race was won by Vlad Shatrov of Australia, who broke Jeff Browning’s course record (set in 2019 at 16:18:54) with his 15:53:30 finish. Local reports say Shatrov went out hard and managed to hold the lead throughout. Yoshihiko Ishikawa of Japan (winner of last year’s Badwater 135) finished less than an hour later, in 16:48:47, and Adam Kimble of the U.S. was third, in 18:23:27.

Congratulations to our top three females today in the #TUM102km!

1. MANUELA SOCCOL (#2031)9:39:49
2. ANNE-MARIE MADDEN (#2021)9:52:42
3. NAOMI BRAND (#2662) 10:31:25

@ultratrailwtour #UTWT pic.twitter.com/OxElQDuETk

— Tarawera Ultramarathon (@taraweraultra) February 8, 2020

Gene Dykes, who in 2018 was only the second 70-year-old to run a sub-3 marathon, and who plans to target Ed Whitlock’s age-group world record at this year’s Chicago Marathon, finished the 100-miler in 34:01:50.

100K results

Two Canadians, Anne-Marie Madden and Mathieu Blanchard, both finished second, Madden in the women’s 100K distance with a time of 9:52:42, and Blanchard in the men’s (8:39:56). The men’s race was won by the U.K.’s Tom Evans in a new course record of 8:03:26, the women’s by 2016 Olympic marathoner Manuela Soccol of Belgium in 9:39:49. Kris Brown of the U.S. was third in the men’s race (8:40:51) and South Africa’s Naomi Brand was third in the women’s race in 10:31:25.

RELATED: Camille Herron wins Tarawera Ultramarathon two weeks post car accident