F40-44 at UTMB 2026: Adeline Martin Owns the Mountain

• Adeline Martin wins in 12:45:43 (11:25/mi), posting the 4th-fastest women's split on the Champex-Lac Sortie→Trient segment and holding 8th among all women from mid-race to the finish line in Chamonix.
• Theres Leboeuf takes 2nd in 12:58:52, just 13 minutes and 9 seconds back, with the 5th-fastest women's split on Grand Col Ferret→La Fouly — her strongest stretch of the day.
• Ying Li's charge from the back: she crossed into the women's field at 73rd place early on, then climbed steadily to 23rd by the finish — the most dramatic progression in the F40-44 field, fueled by the 8th-fastest women's split on Vallorcine Entrée→Vallorcine Sortie.
• 64 finishers completed this 108 km, 6,200 m+ point-to-point through Italy, Switzerland, and France within the 28-hour limit.

Adeline Martin ran a composed, authoritative race from Courmayeur to Chamonix. She entered the women's field at 11th place and had climbed to 8th by the time she reached the first major checkpoint — and she never let that position slip, holding it all the way to the tape. Her 12:45:43 at an 11:25/mi average across a course that climbs over 6,200 meters is the kind of performance that anchors a field, and her 4th-fastest women's split on the Champex-Lac Sortie→Trient stretch showed she still had something to give deep in the race.

Theres Leboeuf was her closest challenger, finishing 2nd in 12:58:52. Leboeuf's race had more movement to it — she swung between 7th and 11th among women across various checkpoints — but her 5th-fastest women's split on the Grand Col Ferret→La Fouly leg showed genuine strength on that technical stretch. The 13-minute gap to Martin is real, but Leboeuf ran a sharp, competitive race to claim the silver.

The story of the day's biggest arc belongs to Ying Li. Starting conservatively — 73rd among women early on — she spent the entire race hunting places, running a 12:28/mi average over 108 km to land 3rd in the F40-44 field in 13:56:49. Her 8th-fastest women's split on the Vallorcine Entrée→Vallorcine Sortie segment was the engine of that comeback. Lina Broström (4th, 14:49:09) and Katie Kaars Sijpesteijn (5th, 15:03:34) both made their own steady climbs through the women's field, with Sijpesteijn posting the 22nd-fastest women's split on that same Vallorcine segment.

From Alina Wylezalek's 6th-place 15:06:53 through to Aurélie Wilhelm's 20th-place 20:55:52, the back half of the listed field covered this brutal course with the kind of grit the UTMB demands — 71°F, 74% humidity, and elevation topping 8,000 feet making every kilometer earned. All 64 finishers in the F40-44 field made it to Chamonix.