Spaniard Kilian Jornet, ultra-trail superstar, announced on Wednesday his desire to participate in the Ultra-trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) at the end of August, the queen of long-distance races which he has already won four times. . “I came back from the Himalayas wanting to see how I felt, what state my body was in. I had mentioned my wish to do long distances at the end of the season. I would like to participate in the UTMB”, explains Jornet in a video posted on his Instagram account.
After devoting himself to mountaineering projects in the Himalayas in the spring, Jornet (35), trail legend, had planned only one race in his summer program, the famous Sierre-Zinal (31 km, 2,200 m of elevation gain in Switzerland) on August 12. To participate in the UTMB (departure on September 1 in Chamonix), Jornet specifies in his video that he must score points by finishing a race on the UTMB World Series circuit in order to qualify for the event, and that he will take part on Saturday in the short trail of the Eiger (16 km, 960 m of elevation gain) in Switzerland.
Jornet has four victories in the UTMB (2008, 2009, 2011 and 2022) and last year set a new record for the event (19 hours and 49 minutes to cover 171 km and 10,000 m of elevation gain) ahead of the French Mathieu Blanchard.