M35-39 at UTMB 2026: Dhiman Dominates from the Front

• Ben Dhiman, 18:19:41 — won the M35-39 field and surged to the men's overall lead by the second checkpoint, never relinquishing it; his 10:10/mi average across 174 km is a performance that comfortably undercuts the men's course record of 19:37:43.
• Hannes Namberger closed hard — moved from 19th among men at the first checkpoint all the way to 6th by the finish (19:17:03), posting the 3rd-fastest men's split on the Tseppes→Vallorcine Entrée leg.
• Pablo Villa's relentless climb — entered the men's field 56th at the first check and finished 11th overall among men (20:18:49), also logging the 3rd-fastest men's split on Grand Col Ferret→La Fouly.
• Jérémy Nion, the biggest mover — started 80th among men and finished 16th (20:51:40), posting the 4th-fastest men's split on Champex-Lac sortie→La Giète.

Ben Dhiman didn't just win the M35-39 field — he ran the kind of race that reshapes an entire men's leaderboard. Starting conservatively enough to sit 4th among men at the first checkpoint, the 35-year-old had moved into the men's overall lead by Les Contamines Montjoie and never looked back. He stayed there through every subsequent check, finishing in 18:19:41 at a 10:10/mi average over 174 km of Mont-Blanc terrain — a time that betters the men's course record. His fastest men's split on the Les Contamines Montjoie→La Balme leg was the exclamation point on a wire-to-wire dominant performance in the world's most storied 100-mile mountain race.

Behind Dhiman, the M35-39 field produced a cascade of charge-from-behind stories. Hannes Namberger (19th among men at checkpoint one) ground his way to 2nd in the group in 19:17:03, his 3rd-fastest men's split on Tseppes→Vallorcine Entrée signaling where he really found his legs. Pablo Villa (38) was even more dramatic — 56th among men early, 3rd in the group by the finish in 20:18:49, with a standout Grand Col Ferret→La Fouly leg. And Jérémy Nion (39) made the largest positional jump of anyone in the cohort: from 80th among men at the open to 16th at the tape in 20:51:40, powered by the 4th-fastest men's split on the Champex-Lac sortie→La Giète stretch.

Santos Gabriel Rueda rounded out the top five in 21:07:35, posting the 9th-fastest men's split on Trient→Les Tseppes to finish 20th among men. Then came a dense cluster: Kevin Roux (22:02:30), Dimitri Soltysiak (22:07:36), Tom Joly (22:12:52), and Alexandre Beraud (22:17:01) separated by just over 14 minutes across four places — tight racing across the back half of a 45-hour-limit mountain circumnavigation. All 263 finishers in this group completed one of ultrarunning's most demanding tests, through France, Italy, and Switzerland, with more than 9,700 meters of climbing underfoot.