The 2026 Mt. FUJI 100 delivered a pair of statement performances over the weekend of 25–26 April as American Chris Myers won the men's 100-mile in 17 hours 50 minutes 13 seconds and China's Ying Li claimed the women's title on her 100-mile debut in 22:18:12. With prize money introduced for the first time and a remodelled course taking competitors around the foot of Japan's most famous volcano, the World Trail Majors event produced one of the deepest fields the race has ever seen.
Myers, a Brooks-sponsored runner from Asheville, North Carolina, ran most of the race shoulder-to-shoulder with China's Jiaju Zhao before finally pulling clear with around 20 kilometres to run. Zhao held on for second in 18:28:12 and Japan's Yuya Kawasaki rounded out the men's podium in 18:51:03, denying the home nation a winner but rewarding a typically front-running Japanese effort. Myers' victory continues a remarkable spring for the 33-year-old, who arrived in Yamanashi off the back of a winter spent training in Spain and Mexico.
The women's race was the more dramatic of the two. Li, a former road and track athlete from Yunnan, took the lead before halfway and looked in command until American Kaytlyn Gerbin reeled her in at the 122-kilometre Yamanaka Lake aid station. Gerbin, a two-time Western States runner-up, briefly opened a small advantage on the runnable middle section, but Li responded on the steeper climbs of the final third and edged back in front. By the closing technical descents the gap was decisive, and Li crossed the line eight minutes clear with Gerbin second and Japan's Nami Iwasaki third.
Mt. FUJI 100 organisers had spent the off-season reworking the route to make it both safer in early-season weather and more consistent year-on-year. The 2026 edition kept the iconic clockwise loop around Mount Fuji but trimmed exposed single-track in favour of better-maintained forest road in the western Aokigahara section, a change directors said would protect runners and pacers from late-night fog. The race also introduced a tiered prize purse for the first time, paying down to tenth in both the men's and women's fields and offering bonuses for course records.
Drama was not confined to the headline race. The companion ASUMI 40k saw original line-honours winner Liam Meirow disqualified after a post-finish kit check revealed he had run without the mandatory mobile phone, with China's Ru-Qin Wang elevated to the men's title in 2:57:22. Japan's Honoka Akiyama claimed the women's race in 3:24:40. With Mt. FUJI 100 cementing its place on the World Trail Majors calendar and Western States lottery looming, both Myers and Li now turn to Auburn, California — though as Myers noted in his finish-line interview, "I'd quite like to sleep first."