The British athlete and the New Zealand runner, who broke the women's course record, were the best in the tough race in La Palma.
La Palma recovered the Transvulcania adidas Terrex for its people and Jonathan Albon and Ruth Croft became the leaders of this sporting reconquest. Albon and Croft, who broke the record of the race, were the winners of the 2024 Ultra Marathon in a race marked by the toughness and beauty of its route from the sea to the sky and from the sky to the finish line in Los Llanos de Aridane.
The Faro de Fuencaliente lighthouse was once again the starting point for a large group of athletes who began their adventure at 6.00 a.m., heading towards a tough ascent through volcanic soil towards the village of Los Canarios, where the locals were waiting for the runners to pass through.
From there the head of the race maintained its pace until Las Deseadas and then passed the Refugio de El Pilar, in a more comfortable area that gave a small rest to the competitors who then faced a terrain that sloped upwards again where it was still not clear who could be the winners.
In a leading group of about ten athletes were Albon, Small, Evans, Manole, Butaci, Aurell, Mytiaev and Baronian, among others. The passage through El Roque de los Muchachos led the athletes to the technical, long and hard downhill to Puerto de Tazacorte and from there the last effort, again uphill to Los Llanos de Aridane with the 'trap' of the ravine of Las Angustias in the middle.
Albon had already opened up a considerable gap to Mytiaev, second in 2018 and 2019, and Evans, who behaved like true team-mates. At the finish line, Jonathan Albon (7h.03:10) came first, followed by Dmitry Mytiaev (7h.05:16) and Tom Evans (7h.05:17), who came in together. Aurell, winner in 2018, finished eighth and Transvulcania legend Luis Alberto Hernando, triple winner of the ultra, was twelfth.
Among the girls, Ruth Croft won with a course record (8h.02:49), also a member of Team adidas Terrex, who made a tough selection from almost the beginning of the race with a pace that Ida Nilsson, second at the finish line (8h.16:32) and the Nepalese Sunmaya Buidha, always brave in her approach to the race (8h.20:31), held on to until the end of the race.
Croft held a lead from mid-race onwards that Nilsson came close to recovering, but in the end the Oceanian imposed the solidity of her stride, opened a remarkable gap and earned herself a place among the legends of the reborn Transvulcania Adidas Terrex.
The President of the Cabildo Insular de La Palma, Sergio Rodríguez, admitted that the race had been "a reflection of what we have experienced throughout the preparation stage of the race, in which we could feel in the atmosphere how people recovered their enthusiasm, enthusiasm and interest in Transvulcania and in a certain way, independently of the runners who finished on the podium and the great role played by the athletes from La Palma, who continue to raise their level, the most beautiful thing was to see how people were waiting for the runners in Los Canarios again, how their footsteps echoed with encouragement as they passed through the Refugio El Pilar, The most beautiful thing was to see how the people were once again waiting for the runners in Los Canarios, how their footsteps echoed with encouragement as they passed through the Refugio de El Pilar or how there was excitement among the supporters in this last stretch of the Ultra Marathon, carrying the runners on their shoulders. It's something that for others might have gone unnoticed, but for us it gives us the encouragement and strength to continue with this race that carries the soul of all the people of La Palma".
