F35-39 at UTMB 2026: Erkkilä Runs Down the Field to Take the Crown

• Anna-Stiina Erkkilä, 12:36:17 — won the F35-39 field at an 11:16/mi avg, posting the fastest women's split on the Tête de la Tronche→Refuge Bertone segment along the way.
• 31-minute gap to 2nd — Gemma Hillier Moses crossed in 13:07:35, with Alexandra Augsten a further 30 minutes back in 13:38:16.
• Marine Quintard, the biggest mover — entered the women's field 43rd deep and climbed steadily to finish 4th in F35-39 at 13:46:32, logging the 13th-fastest women's split on the Vallorcine Sortie→Finish stretch.
• Varvara Shikanova's fading hold — started 13th among women and briefly ran top 20, but slipped to 22nd by the finish; her 3rd-fastest women's split on Refuge Bonatti→Arnouvaz showed she still had fire in one key stretch.

Anna-Stiina Erkkilä didn't lead this race from the front — she hunted it. Checking in 20th among women at the opening checkpoint, the 36-year-old Finn steadily carved through the field across 108 kilometers of Italian, Swiss, and French mountain terrain, eventually climbing as high as 5th among women before settling into 6th by the finish line in Chamonix. Her winning time of 12:36:17 at an 11:16/mi average — across more than 6,200 meters of elevation gain — was built on relentless consistency and one decisive burst: the fastest women's split on the Tête de la Tronche→Refuge Bertone segment, a move that separated her from the chase.

Gemma Hillier Moses ran the opposite arc. Sitting 27th among women at one checkpoint, she reeled off the 7th-fastest women's split on the Champex-Lac sortie→Trient leg to surge into the top 12 by the finish, claiming 2nd in F35-39 at 13:07:35. That's a catch-up story worth noting — her 11:44/mi average is meaningfully slower than Erkkilä's pace, but she made up substantial ground on the women ahead of her in the back half of the race. Alexandra Augsten rounded out the podium in 13:38:16, herself posting the 5th-fastest women's split on Tête de la Tronche→Refuge Bertone — a segment that clearly separated the top three from the field.

The battle for 4th and 5th told its own story. Quintard climbed from 43rd among women to 21st, finishing 4th at 13:46:32 — one of the sharpest upward moves in the entire F35-39 field. Shikanova, meanwhile, ran the inverse: strong early at 13th among women, she faded to 22nd by the tape, finishing 5th in 13:55:52. Behind them, 76 women completed this point-to-point epic inside the 28-hour limit — a field that ran hard from Courmayeur all the way to Chamonix.