These Canadians are headed to Western States or Hardrock 100 in 2024

Ultrarunners across the world tuned in to the lottery draws, both held on Saturday, to determine who will be running in the 2024 editions of the legendary Western States Endurance Run (WSER) and Hardrock 100.

Here are the lucky Canadians whose names were pulled. They put in the work to earn a lottery ticket (or several hundred, as your WSER ticket increases exponentially by 2^(n-1, with n equalling the number of years you have entered the lottery unsuccessfully), and their names were selected out of the more than 9,000 lottery entrants for the 2024 WSER, or 2,414 for Hardrock 100.

16 of the top ten runners from 2023 are returning in 2024.https://t.co/W87voLj1zz pic.twitter.com/SsOoDxW5oj

— Western States 100 (@wser) December 1, 2023

Western States 100

The 2023 WSER lottery for North America’s oldest 100-mile trail race was held at Placer High School in Auburn, Calif., near the race’s finish line. To enter the WSER lottery, runners must either complete a qualifying race, be a top-10 finisher the previous year, earn a Golden Ticket at one of seven races, or gain entry through a sponsor. This year’s lottery had a record 9,388 entrants, with a combined total of 53,966 tickets, and 267 names were drawn on Saturday (with 75 added to a waitlist).

The 2024 edition of WSER will begin on June 28.

Xavier Berreul (Montreal)
Jean-Mathieu Chenier (Gatineau, Que.)
Iris Cooper (Thornhill, Ont.)
Randy Duncan (Victoria)
Sherman Lam (Toronto)
Cal Mitchell (Ottawa)
Ryan Mylymuk (Edmonton)
Jon Paradowski (Regina)
Francisco Riccadonna (Stouffville, Ont.)
Tyler Rogers (Port Moody, B.C.)
Jeff Rowthorn (Ontario)
Flemming Sondergaard (Saskatoon)
Catherine Tetrault (Canmore, Alta.)
Adam Tremblay (Quispamsis, N.B.)
Madeline Wighardt (Ontario)

Waitlist
Linda Trinh (Toronto)
Yong Chuang Chen (Vancouver)

Edmonton’s Priscilla Forgie will compete as a top 10 finisher from 2023.

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Hardrock 100

Hardrock 100 starts and finishes in Silverton, Colo., and takes runners up and down 10,000 metres of elevation, looping around the San Juan Mountains. Hardrock 100 is not only an iconically tough race but is also notoriously challenging to get into, with more than 2,000 entrants yearly (2,796 in 2023) and only 146 runners accepted. The 2024 edition will be held on July 12.

The Hardrock 100 lottery is divided into two pools, the “never” and “finished” divisions, with the never pool containing all the runners who’ve never completed the race, and the finished pool containing runners who’ve finished at least one Hardrock 100.

Beginning in 2022, Hardrcock introduced a policy that states that the percentage of women chosen to start the race will not be less than the percentage of women applicants. In 2023, this was 20 per cent. Separate wait lists are also established for men and women to maintain the ratio.

Joshua Barringer (Brackendale, B.C.)
Tim Blair (Vancouver)
Blaze Capdecoume (Vancouver)
Nathaniel Couture (Fredericton, N.B.)
Lourdes Gutierrez-Kellam (Calgary)
Claire Heslop (Almonte, Ont.)
Eric McGee (Rosemere, Que.)
Alexandra Ostaszewski (Calgary)
Andy Reed (Canmore, Alta.)
Anatoly Ross (South Lancaster, Ont.)
Samuel Yamamoto (Lethbridge, Alta.)

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Waitlist
Matt Barry (Vancouver)
Elliot Brady (Sooke, B.C.)
Tara Chahl (Edmonton)
Randy Duncan (Victoria)
Mario Festival (Calgary)
Matthew Fortuna (Oyama, B.C.)
Leo Fung (Calgary)
Allen Hadley (New Denver, B.C.)
Cal Mitchell (Ottawa)
Dawson Mossman (Fredericton, N.B.)
Jason Oliver (Victoria)
Nick Reynolds (Whistler, B.C.)
Dana Samis (Vancouver)
Tory Scholz (Lillooet, B.C.)
Linda Trinh (Toronto)
Keith Viger (Kamloops, B.C.)
Xiao Hui Zheng (Surrey, B.C.)

B.C. runner Becky Bates will be racing as a finisher from 2023.