Press release, 17 July 2017

Thanks to good conditions a lot of trail records achieved on the foot of North Face 5th Eiger Ultra Trail – 15 & 16 July 2017

The 5th edition of Eiger Ultra Trail was an exciting event. E101 was selected as Swiss Championship in trail running and due to very good conditions trail records were beaten one by another. Andrea Huser is the winner of E101 and Swiss Champion 2017. Stephan Hugenschmidt from Germany won the mens race over 101 kilometres imperiously with new trail record. Urs Jenzer crossed the finish line as second and was celebrated as Swiss Champion 2017.

Right from the beginning the mens race over 101 kilometres was extremely exciting. Early in the race a leading group of five athletes separated from the rest. Part of this group was as well the Jordi Gamito-Baus from Spain and the winner Stephan Hugenschmidt. The two times winner of Eiger Ultra Trail Urs Jenzer (Frutigen, ), steadily worked his way up through the field. Until Männlichen the lead changed from intermediate check-point to intermediate check-point. Finally Hugenschmidt passed Männlichen on position, Jenzer was second and Gamito-Baus passed on third position. This remained unchanged to the finish line. Hugenschmidt beat the trail record, which was valid since 2013, by more than 30 minutes and reached the finish line after 11:01:10.3. Urs Jenzer finished the race in 11:15:42.7 and beat his previous personal record for 30 minutes as well. Jordi Gamito-Baus had to settle for third place again.

After the cancellation of a lot of foreign top athletes, the two Swiss women Andrea Huser and Kathrin Götz were running a close race until . Unfortunately Kathrin Götz had to give up after an injury. Andrea Huser then safely runs in 13:46:29.1 to her second victory in a row at Eiger Ultra Trail and the titel of Swiss Champion 2017. The Austrian woman Martina Trimmel started in Wengen her catch-up chase and overtook three more runners. Finally she crossed the finish line as second. Helene Ogi from Switzerland finished in third position.

But not only the men over 101 kilometres were very fast. The very good conditions on the trails and the not too hot weather affected the running times. This year in total five new trail records were achieved. In the mens race over 35 kilometres the trail record was only missed by 10 minutes. For a new trail record over 16 kilometres women only 19 seconds were missing.

All trail records of 2017 as an overview:

E101 men: Stephan Hugenschmidt 11:01:10.3 E51 men: Stephan Wenk 5:08:26.5 E51 couples: Seppi Neuhauser + Anton Philipp 6:07:41.4 E35 women: Rosmarie Zaugg 4:31:48.9 E16 men Philipp Feuz 1:15:01.6

In the 51-kilometre mens race, Stephan Wenk from Switzerland won in 5:08:26.52 ahead of Diego Pazos (last years winner of E101) who had to change short-term the distance due to an injury and last years winner of E51 Helmut Schiessl (Buchenberg, Germany). Gediminas Grinius, overall winner of Ultra Trail World Tour 2016, started as well over 51 kilometres and finished sixth place. Maren Tritschler (Basel, Switzerland) took top spot on the mens podium after finishing in a time of 6:17:10.05. Just behind were Franziska Etter (Zurich, Switzerland) in second place and Kate Wood (, Switzerland) in third. The 51-kilometre race for teams of two was won by Seppi Neuhauser and Anton Philipp.

The E35 course won Rosmarie Zaugg (Koppigen, Switzerland) in 4:31:48.9 and Nico Dalcolmo (Dürnten, Switzerland) in 3:43:16.3. The other two runners on the mens podium were Stian Dahl Sommerseth (Tromsdalen, Norway) in second place and Ramon Manetsch (Liebefeld, Switzerland) in third place. Alongside Rosmarie Zaugg on the womens podium were Cathrine Lagerberg (Oslo, Norway) in second place and Francesca Scribani (Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy) in third.

The winner of the 16-kilometre race was Philipp Feuz (Ringgenberg, Switzerland) in 1:15:01.6, ahead of Geri Schneider (Mels, Switzerland) and Baptiste Dubois (La Sagne, Switzerland) In the womens race, Meredith Byrne (Geneva, Switzerland) won in a time of 1:31:30.9 ahead of Catriona Macdonald (Morpeth, Great Britain) and Victoria Barthelmess (Weybridge, Great Britain).

The Kids Race was held again on the Friday evening during the athletes' briefing. It was contested by 172 children from 14 different countries. Children of all ages thoroughly enjoyed showing off their prowess, surrounded by all the parents and other spectators.

The organisers were very happy with the anniversary event. Ralph Näf, president of the organisation committee, happily said: “The event was a success thanks to such a motivated and competent organisation committee as well as the best staff I could have had.”

Next year’s Eiger Ultra Trail will be held from 13. to 17. July 2018. Registrations will be open from Halloween, 31. October 2017, 10.00 a.m.

For further details see: www.eigerultratrail.ch and www.facebook.com/EigerUltraTrail Official results: https://services.datasport.com/2017/lauf/eiger-trail/ Photography pascalimhof.com and Thomas Senf

Contact the editorial team for questions: Eiger Ultra Trail Ralph Näf Dorfstrasse 179 3818 Switzerland Email [email protected] Tel. 0041 (0)79 337 94 27

Contact for additional photos: Eiger Ultra Trail Andrea Imfeld Press service E-mail [email protected]