The Mozart 100 by UTMB heads back to the Salzkammergut on Saturday May 23 with what organisers are calling the strongest field in the race's history, and the entire weekend's distances now sold out almost three weeks before the gun. The flagship 110-kilometre Mozart 100 starts and finishes in Fuschl am See, with the longer Mozart Ultra heading off from St. Gilgen the night before, the marathon distance leaving Faistenau, and the half marathon rolling out of Koppl. Combined, the four races put more than three thousand runners on the alpine trails around Salzburg over a single weekend.
The men's 100k looks to be the most competitive of the lot. Defending champion Andreas Reiterer returns after his sub-eleven hour victory in 2025 and will line up against Manuel Merillas, who is using the race as his final long effort before UTMB itself, and a small group of Spanish climbers led by Antonio Martinez and Pablo Villa. Britain's Tom Owens, racing his first event back from a long achilles layoff, is the wildcard. The course, which links Fuschl, Hintersee, the Faistenauer Schafberg and the long ridgeline back through Koppl, has historically rewarded conservative climbers, and Reiterer's rhythm on the long mid-race climb to the Schafberg shoulder will be the early shape of the race.
The women's race is even harder to call. The 2025 winner, Annette Pfaffinger, has not entered this year, leaving Sophia Laukli and Toni McCann as the headline names alongside South African ultra specialist Tatum Prins. Laukli is in the middle of her transition from cross-country skiing to full-time mountain running and goes into Salzburg off a strong block at altitude in St. Moritz, while McCann has been racing well on the Pyrenean circuit in March and April. Prins, who took the Karkloof 100 in late January, is using Mozart as her European introduction.
The course itself remains the same as the 2025 edition, with 5,500 metres of vertical climb spread evenly across the loop, around 35 percent of the surface on technical singletrack, and the rest on alpine forestry roads and farm tracks that suit faster runners. The standout section is the climb out of Hintersee through the Faistenauer Schafberg, a steady eleven-kilometre ascent on smooth track that opens into a high meadow with a view of the Watzmann to the south. The descent off the back into Koppl is steep, narrow and exposed, and historically separates the front from the chase by half an hour.
Running Lookout will follow the race live from the Friday evening Mozart Ultra start through to the cut-off on Sunday afternoon. The local timing partner Datasport is providing intermediate splits at every checkpoint, and UTMB Live will carry a German and English commentary feed from 04:30 CET on Saturday morning. The 2026 Mozart 100 awards ten Running Stones for finishers, two index points for top fifty placings, and direct UTMB Finals slots for the top three on each podium, which gives the event genuine sporting relevance even before the local atmosphere is taken into account.