M45-49 at UTMB 2026: Symonds Surges to the Line

• Andy Symonds, 21:03:10 — wins M45-49 by 1:48:18, posting the 7th-fastest men's split on the La Flégère→Finish closing leg.
• Arnaud Delépine, 22:51:28 — takes 2nd with the 31st-fastest men's split on Courmayeur→Bertone, climbing from 112th among men at the first checkpoint to 42nd by the finish.
• Nicolas Schrapp, 24:46:43 — 3rd, the most dramatic climber in the group: 285th among men early on, up to 85th by the end, with the 32nd-fastest men's split on Vallorcine→La Flégère.
• Places 4 and 5 separated by 3:31 — Nelson Santos (25:03:06) and Edouard Godineau (25:06:37) ran within a whisker of each other across 174 km through France, Italy, and Switzerland.

Andy Symonds, 45, didn't just win M45-49 — he ran his way through the men's field from start to finish. Sitting 51st among men at the first checkpoint, he methodically reeled in competitors across the Mont-Blanc massif, reaching 19th among men by Chamonix. The finishing move was decisive: a 7th-fastest men's split on the La Flégère→Finish leg sealed the win in 21:03:10 at 11:41/mi — a pace that held up through nearly 21 hours of racing at elevations pushing toward 8,300 feet.

Arnaud Delépine, also 45, ran a composed and progressive race for 2nd in 22:51:28. His strongest segment came on Courmayeur→Bertone, where he posted the 31st-fastest men's split in the field and began a sustained climb through the standings — from 112th among men to 42nd. The 1:48:18 gap to Symonds is real, but Delépine's back-half momentum was genuine.

The most eye-catching trajectory belonged to Nicolas Schrapp, 49, who checked in 285th among men after the opening segment and finished 85th — a swing of 200 places through the field over the course of the race. His 32nd-fastest men's split on Vallorcine→La Flégère was the engine of that charge, and he crossed in 24:46:43 to claim 3rd. Behind him, Nelson Santos (25:03:06) and Edouard Godineau (25:06:37) — both 49 and 46 respectively — were separated by just 3:31 after more than 25 hours of running, Santos holding 4th by virtue of his stronger finish.

Places 6 through 10 — Andrew Dorais (25:21:00), Martin Saenz (25:26:03), Arnaud Lejeune (25:36:07), Jesus Alvarez Morales (25:58:03), and Christian Malmström (25:59:46) — compressed into a 38-minute window, a reminder that across 270 finishers in this field, the racing didn't stop at the podium.