Ultra-Trail Shudao by UTMB drew more than 8,000 registrations from 34 countries and regions to Guangyuan in China's Sichuan province from 6 to 8 November, making it one of the largest events on the UTMB World Series calendar in Asia this year. According to figures released by the organisers and reported by Xinhua, women accounted for 38.9 per cent of registrations, and runners from Sichuan made up 34.9 per cent of the field.
The event is built around the Shu Roads, the network of ancient routes that linked the Guanzhong Plain with the Sichuan Basin for more than 3,000 years. Courses passed Jianmen Pass, the Cuiyun Corridor with its avenue of ancient cypresses, the town of Zhaohua, whose history dates back to 316 BC, and the Jinniu Road. Jiange County alone is home to 7,778 ancient cypress trees, the oldest of which is thought to be around 2,300 years old.
There were four races. The flagship DSD 100K covered 92km with around 3,500m of climbing, followed by the CSD 70K, the MSD 50K and the ESD 20K. The MSD 50K was the largest single race, with 3,663 entries. The organisers made a significant change to the main course this year, reducing the proportion of hard-surfaced terrain on the DSD from 45 per cent to 25 per cent, a response to a familiar criticism of events that rely heavily on paved heritage paths.
As a UTMB World Series event, Shudao also carried qualifying value. The top three men and women in the DSD 100K earned direct entry to the CCC at the World Series Finals in Chamonix, while the podium finishers in the MSD 50K secured places in the OCC. International entrants included France's Adrien Thevenet, a Chamonix local returning after racing in Guangyuan last year, who said the event reminded him of home, and Britain's Hannah Wilson, racing for the first time since an injury that had left her unable to walk or run.
The scale of Shudao reflects the rapid growth of trail running in China, which now hosts several UTMB-branded events and a large domestic racing scene. Local businesses reported a significant boost over the weekend, with one restaurant owner in Zhaohua telling Xinhua his staff had been working past midnight to keep up with demand. With the World Series calendar winding down for the year, attention now turns to the final events of the season and to how many of this year's Asian qualifiers make the trip to Mont-Blanc next August.