Stanley and Harvey book tickets to UTMB with clear-cut wins in weather-hit KosciMiler

Sabrina Stanley (USA) and Sam Harvey (NZL) have claimed the 100-mile titles at the 2024 Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko by UTMB, held in the Snowy Mountains of New South Wales.

On a day marked by changeable alpine conditions, Stanley was a class above the rest, leading the women’s KosciMiler race from gun to tape. Her time of 19:51:08 was nearly an hour and a half faster than second-place female Steph Auston (AUS), who finished as runner-up in the KosciMiler for the second year in a row.

Heading back to UTMB

“I’m really happy it’s over. That was a much harder day than I thought it was going to be looking at the profile,” said Stanley. “I just had a really good day out there. I mean, the last 20km was really rough, but everything up until there felt amazing. I was just really enjoying the day and had a lot of fun.”

Stanley, racing in Australia for the first time, convincingly ticked off the two main goals of her trip – win the KosciMiler and punch her ticket to the 2025 UTMB World Series Finals. The American has finished in the top 10 of UTMB, the sport’s pinnacle race, for the past two years.

“I’m really excited to have got my UTMB qualification. But the last 10 miles or so, I was like, I don’t want to do any more hundreds. That’ll fade, I know. But I thought, what am I doing out here, I just want to go home and take a hot bath and go to sleep,” she joked.

“I’m actually really stoked about running to Mt Kosciuszko [the highest peak in Australia]. I think it’s super cool that it’s part of the race. The scenery was so beautiful and blew my expectations away.”

Sabrina Stanley wins KosciMiler 2024 Photo credit: Sportograf for UTMB — Sabrina Stanley celebrates her win [Photo credit: Sportograf for UTMB]

Emily Gilmour-Walsh (AUS) finished the women’s KosciMiler in third, improving on her fifth-place finish in the same race last year.

By finishing on the KosciMiler podium, the top three women and men secured direct qualification into the UTMB (100-mile) race at the 2025 UTMB World Series Finals in Chamonix, France.

Harvey proves strongest

In the men’s KosciMiler, Harvey battled his mind, body and the conditions all day to eventually run away with the win in 16:38:19, more than two hours ahead of Luke Nichols (AUS) in second. Nigel Hill (AUS) rounded out the men’s podium in 19:26:30.

Vlad Shatrov (AUS) started fast and led the early stages of the race, but Harvey and Canberra runner Mike Carroll (AUS) worked together methodically to reel Shatrov back in before making the pass and then continuing to push the pace. Carroll would unfortunately withdraw from the race after 116km.

Due to adverse weather conditions, the KosciMiler and Kosci100 races were paused for around two hours to ensure the safety of all athletes. Overall results were therefore calculated based on each athletes’ finish time minus the time they were held.

“It was some really good racing. Me and Mike worked really well together rather than beating each other up and trying to have a fight out there. We just fed off each other and looked after each other, and as a result, we went super, duper fast,” said Harvey.

“I don’t know what happened to him, I think the two-hour stop might have messed him up a wee bit, which is unfortunate. I reckon he would have had that race if it wasn’t for that, so it’s pretty sad for him. But that’s ultra marathon, because you end up with all sorts of problems, and you’ve just got to solve all those problems one at a time. I solved problems the most.”