In November of 2023, a group of race directors from world-class trail races announced the creation of a new trail racing circuit: the World Trail Majors. As of December 2024, the inaugural season for the series has concluded. We’ll use this month’s column to familiarize ourselves with the series’ origin and goals and its inaugural year participation and competitiveness.
The 2024 Hong Kong 100k men’s podium (left to right): 3. Tyler Green, 1. Guang-Fu Meng, and 3. Pei-Quan You. The Hong Kong 100k is part of the World Trail Majors. Photo: World Trail Majors/Anta Brand
The announcement of the World Trail Majors (WTM) in the fall of 2023 came following the conclusion of the first year of the UTMB World Series. The UTMB World Series bought or launched trail races around the world. These trail races held privileged positions in the qualifier system for entering UTMB, CCC, and OCC. As the UTMB World Series navigated growing pains, trail runners got a feel for the new management of beloved races and new lottery processes.
A group of race directors recognized that plenty of runners wanted to participate in races that remained independent, competitive, bucket-list events on gorgeous trails. They created the WTM to manifest this option. The races recognize existing world-class events and encourage their respective race management teams to keep doing what they do, thereby maintaining their loyal followings and attracting new participants.
By comparing the races to the wildly popular World Marathon Majors road-marathon race collection, the race directors aspired toward a model in which trail runners attempt to complete series races throughout a lifetime, instead of feeling pressured to make one or more long trips per season.
Ten races made up the series for its inaugural season:
A table listing each race in the 2024 World Trail Majors in chronological order. Note that for 2025 onward, the Grampians Peaks Trail 100 Mile in Australia and the Vietnam Mountain Marathon in Vietnam will also be part of the series.
The 2024 season appears to provide proof of concept. All races in the WTM boasted strong attendance and competitive fields. Elite athletes showed up, often to multiple series races. Let’s dive into the numbers.
Participation in 2024 World Trail Majors Races
Every WTM event attracted high levels of participation and strong international contingents. According to International Trail Running Association (ITRA) results, which includes runners who did not finish but excludes any who did not start (DNS), the 10 WTM races in 2024 had 7,901 results (1).
The series included some large events in 2024, such as the Mt. Fuji 100 Mile with 2,144 participants, and the Hong Kong 100k with 1,755 participants, respectively. But some events were more intimate. The South Downs Way 100 Mile had just 36 participants, according to ITRA results, while field caps and DNSs kept participants at the WTM event at the Québec Mega Trail to 176. The Swiss Canyon Trail exhibited the most growth in 2024, attracting 47% more participants than the previous year.
Multiple WTM races boasted greater international participation than the previous year, too. The international contingent increased by 17% at the Hong Kong 100k in 2024 compared to the previous year, and by 11% at the Québec Mega Trail. Only Transgrancanaria saw a decrease in international participation rates in 2024, and only by 2%.
Hugo Deck, the 2024 Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100k men’s champion. Photo: Ultra-Trail Cape Town/Sam Clark
World Trail Majors Competitiveness
Did the WTM succeed in attracting elite athletes? Well, Courtney Dauwalter raced in and won two WTM events — Transgrancanaria and the Mt. Fuji 100 Mile. Her race performances were impressive in true Dauwalter fashion, and they reflect positively on the WTM series. But Dauwalter was by no means the only elite athlete competing in these events, so I’ll elaborate.
The ITRA Performance Index classifies elite athletes as men with an ITRA score of 825 or better, and women with a score of 700 or better — check out a previous article for more context on ITRA scores and other ranking systems. By that standard, ITRA counted at least 43 performances by men and 24 by women as meeting an elite standard.
The total number of elite athletes who participated was significantly higher. For example, Richard Lockwood’s best performance at a WTM race in 2024, according to the ITRA score algorithm, was worth a score of 796 for his top-10 finish at the Madeira Island Ultra-Trail, but Lockwood’s overall ITRA Performance Index is 859.
Courtney Dauwalter notching another win at the 2024 Mt. Fuji 100 Mile. Photo: © Fuji Hakone Izu Trail Support
Another point of comparison is the first year of the UTMB World Series, which launched in 2022. The marquee UTMB race in Chamonix attracted 84 entrants who were classified as elite, according to the ITRA Performance Index. The CCC race was similarly competitive, with 74 elite entrants. However, many of the other UTMB World Series events had far fewer — at least 14 events had between five and 10 elite entrants.
Among runners on the leaderboard, 14 women raced in two or more WTM events in 2024, as did eight men. For context, when we looked at the Golden Trail World Series, there were at least 88 athletes (men and women combined) who raced in at least three of the seven races in 2022, which was the minimum number of races to qualify for the final. Those were shorter-distance races, and it was the fourth season of the Golden Trail World Series. The WTM has yet to reach that level of series participation, nor was it intended to with its longer races and only two races needed to compete in the series.
We can find further signs that WTM races attracted top-level talent among the Freetrail nominees for 2024 Trail Performance of the Year, which included at least two from WTM races:
Hayden Hawks on his way to winning the 2024 Black Canyon 100k. Photo: Jesse Ellis/Let’s Wander Photography
The nominees for 2024 Freetrail Trail Runner of the Year included Miguel Arsénio, Guang-Fu Meng, Guo-Min Deng, Rachel Drake, Marianne Hogan, and Jazmine Lowther — to name just a few examples of elite athletes who were recognized for performing well at WTM races.
Anne Champagne won two WTM races in 2024, a claim she shares with Courtney Dauwalter. When asked to describe what attracted her to the WTM in 2024, Champagne said:
“I started planning my season around the Québec Mega Trail. I just came back from a tough couple years where racing wasn’t going well and I needed to find the right reasons why I was doing those races. Seeing how that race went with a course record, a first place, and the way I raced having fun the whole time, I started thinking about the next opportunities in the WTM circuit.
“The Grand Raid des Pyrénées looked like the best opportunity to express myself and it didn’t hurt that it looked like an awesome event, even if it was only six weeks after the Québec Mega Trail, so I just went for it. The WTM values, such as diversity and respect for the local environment and traditions, really resonated. They bring something new in the ultra-trail running community that is unique and gives the opportunity for every runner to achieve big goals, from completing a race to competing against some of the best in the world.”
Anne Champagne elated with winning the 2024 Québec Mega Trail. Photo: Québec Mega Trail/Christian Dionne
Looking to 2025 and Beyond
When the WTM was announced in November 2023, some of the participating races had already opened their registration and, in some cases, were already sold out for the circuit’s inaugural year. That means we have yet to see the full impact of the series on attracting new participants. It’s also challenging to measure the effect of the series on media coverage, which may pick up further in the years to come. Considering the WTM emphasizes the independence and uniqueness of its events, the series will frequently be a “cherry on top” of each already top-notch race.
Looking at the entrants’ lists for the earliest series races of the 2025 season, there is already evidence of strong competition and global appeal. If the WTM is successful in 2025, that momentum is likely to make WTM races even more popular and competitive, particularly if professional athlete contracts include incentives to compete at and perform well in the annual series.
The association is already rolling out announcements for 2025 — the Grampians Peaks Trail 100 Mile in Australia and Vietnam Mountain Marathon in Vietnam will be part of the global series. Let’s see if the series adds any more events for 2025.
Also new for 2025, the WTM will include a Team’s League. Athletes affiliated with the same brand or team can contribute to a podium finish at the team level — in each event or for the season as a whole.
This will be similar to the team component of world championships. For example, Jumpei Yamaguchi and Floriane Hot won the individual championships at the 2024 IAU 100k World Championships, and Japan and France won in the men’s and women’s team categories, respectively.
For the WTM, the Team’s League should be interesting to follow because it will motivate elite athletes having a tough day to grind out a finish, if they can finish within the top 100 to score points for their team. It may also encourage brands to support their athletes’ participation in WTM races because of the added visibility it will give the brand.
Call for Comments
- Have you participated in any events in the World Trail Majors? Are there any on your list?
- Has the creation of the World Trail Majors made you more aware of or interested in any of these races?
- Who among our readers is striving to eventually run each event?
- Any predictions for 2025?
Notes/References
- Because the races are independent, it is challenging to calculate the precise number of runners participating in more than one World Trail Majors race. When I removed duplicates from the names of 2024 participants in my dataset, I had a final result of 7,706 unique entrant names. But, these races do not use a unified registration system, so it’s possible that a runner’s name appeared slightly differently across multiple ITRA results. This happened to Sange Sherpa, for example.
Jazmine Lowther, the 2024 Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100k women’s champion. Photo: Ultra-Trail Cape Town/Sam Clark
