HOKA Ultra-Trail Australia by UTMB returns to Katoomba and the Blue Mountains National Park from 14 to 17 May as the only Oceania Major on the 2026 UTMB World Series calendar — meaning every distance offered next weekend pays double Running Stones into the Mont-Blanc lottery. The festival will run six races across the long weekend, anchored by a 100-mile (UTA100M) and a 100-kilometre (UTA100K) flagship pair, with shorter UTA50, UTA22 and UTA11 events filling out Saturday and Sunday. Race director Tom Landon-Smith confirmed earlier this week that 2,800 entries have closed across all distances, broadly in line with last year's field but with a noticeably stronger international entry list.
The marquee race for elite runners is the 100-kilometre, which doubles as the season's first marquee head-to-head between several World Series podium hopefuls. Lucy Bartholomew, who finished second at Mont-Blanc CCC last August and trains in the Blue Mountains for much of the year, is the prohibitive home favourite in the women's race; she will be challenged by New Zealand's Caitlin Fielder and South African ultra specialist Toni McCann, both of whom are using UTA as a Mont-Blanc qualifying race rather than a season target. The men's 100k features American Jared Hazen, returning to the World Series after a year focused on Western States, and Australian Vlad Shatrov on a course he holds the local age-group record on.
The 100-mile event is run on a separate course that climbs out of Katoomba to the Megalong Valley, drops to the Cox's River and then rolls back via the Six Foot Track. Of the 280 entries, 210 are first-time milers; UTMB's pre-race briefing this week placed particular emphasis on the second-night cutoffs at the Dunphys Camp aid station, where last year a quarter of the field timed out. Australian endurance runner Beth Cardelli, returning to ultra racing after 18 months out for stress-fracture rehabilitation, is the headline name in the women's 100-mile, while previous winner Andy Lee will lead the men's field.
The Major status carries through to the rest of the weekend in concrete ways. UTA100M finishers receive 8 Running Stones, UTA100K finishers receive 6, UTA50 finishers receive 4 and UTA22 finishers receive 2 — double the count for the equivalent UTMB World Series Event. With the 2026 Mont-Blanc lottery now requiring at least one Running Stone earned in the previous two years just to enter, the Australia weekend is the most efficient point of entry on the calendar this side of the European summer. UTMB's Australian organisers say lottery slots claimed at UTA next week will appear in MyUTMB accounts within 72 hours of finishing.
The course's other variable is weather. May is autumn in the Blue Mountains, and forecasters at the Bureau of Meteorology have flagged a possible East Coast Low approaching New South Wales mid-week, which would push rain across the course on Friday and Saturday. UTA's organisers have confirmed contingency course routings for both 100-mile and 100-kilometre events that avoid the Cox's River crossing if water levels rise, and a final go/no-go call on the standard course will be made on Thursday afternoon. Live tracking opens at 6am Australian Eastern Standard Time on Saturday 16 May; UTMB Live will host the international stream from 8am AEST.