AUTRA Race Report 28-10-2026

Backyard Ultra World Team Championships, Global

The 2026 Backyard Ultra World Team Championships was an invitation-only international last one standing event featuring Australia’s top 15 backyard ultra athletes, competing as Team Australia against 70+ countries from around the world.

Hosted by Red’s Backyard Ultra, the Australian event was staged at Integral Energy Park in Kembla Range, NSW from 17 October.

The Aussie team consisted of AUTRA members Jonathan Ash, James Blanton, Tim Kacprzak, Barry Keem, Ben Nicholls, Brodie Nankervis and Colin Moulden. Non AUTRA members included were Dan Camac, Scott Cameron, Jack Hanley, Mathieu Dube and Brandon-Lee Grech.

For the Aussies, Dan Camac was the LOS with 87 laps, or 583.422km with Ben Nicholls claiming title of Assist with 86 laps, or 576.716km.

Team Australia completed a total of 1,069 laps equalling about 7,172kms.

Images: Sourced/Snapped sport pics.

Run Bibbulmun Track Stage Race, WA

The Run Bibbulmun Track Stage Race was held from 23-25 October in Denmark, WA, a three-day trail running stage race held along sections of the Bibbulmun Track in the Great Southern region of the state.

Hosted by Rapid Ascent, distance options were 39km, 35km, 33km, 24km, 21km and 17km.

Winners in the Men’s Day 1 Long Course (35km) were Ryan Sanders (3:27:29), Cody Miller (3:30:32) and Vaughn Colyer (3:48:48) whilst winners in the Women’s Day 1 Long Course (35km) were Jess Reynolds (3:42:53), Anna-Lee Martinovich (4:00:27) and Marnie Ross (4:07:01).

Winners in the Men’s Day 1 Short Course (17km) were Paul Henshall (1:49:50), Locklan Gilbert (2:03:01) and Simon Delaney (2:03:04); winners in the Women’s Day 1 Short Course (17km) were Anna Miller (2:05:06), Katharine Lake (2:14:23) and Fiona Ruxton (2:14:34).

Winners in the Men’s Day 2 Long Course (33km) were Ryan Sanders (3:13:15), Cody Miller (3:17:56) and Vaughn Colyer (3:21:18) and winners in the Women’s Day 2 Long Course (33km) were Jess Reynolds (3:19:13), Anna-Lee Martinovich (3:39:12) and Marnie Ross (3:48:30).

In the Men’s Day 2 Short Course (24km), winners were Paul Henshall (2:28:31), Hayden Boffey (2:30:56) and Shane Poyner (2:31:28). Winners in the Women’s Day 2 Short Course (24km) were Fiona Ruxton (2:49:32), Katharine Lake (2:51:39) and Simone Allen (2:55:08).

Winners in the Men’s Day 3 Long Course (39km) were Ryan Sanders (3:56:49), Vaughn Colyer (3:57:33) and Cody Miller (4:02:01), while winners in the Women’s Day 3 Long Course (39km) were Jess Reynolds (4:15:53), Marnie Ross (4:40:49) and Anna-Lee Martinovich (4:53:15).  

In the Men’s Day 3 Short Course (21km), top spots went to Paul Henshall (2:05:07), Hayden Boffey (2:14:59) and Kyohei Onozawa (2:20:47), whilst in the Women’s Day 3 Short Course (21km), the winners were Simone Allen (2:38:30), Jackie Mainwaring (2:38:57) and Dianne Sheedy (2:41:15).

The full list of results can be found here.

Images: Rapid Ascent/Bossfoto.

Great Ocean Trail Ultra, Vic

The Great Ocean Trail Ultra was held on 24 October in Apollo Bay, Vic and offered distances of 100km Solo (59 finishers), 100km Team, and 45km (56 finishers) with participants running along singletrack near the coastline.

Winners in the Men’s 100km Solo were Steve Miller (10:15:00), Jack Banwell (11:20:10) and Mitchell Todd (11:33:23) while winners in the Women’s 100km Solo were Faye Lehane (14:42:50), Zoe Handreck (14:59:26) and Shimin Li (15:15:05).

Congratulations to all our members who raced in the 100km, including Mark Flindall (16:47:21) and Andy Hewat (19:53:38).

Winners in the Men’s 45km were Mohsen Farahzad (4:38:49), Kurtis Corrin (4:50:39) and Kaden Newton (4:56:47), and top spots in the Women’s 45km went to Kate Avery (4:44:44), Irene Brackin (5:50:13) and Georgia Wilson (6:14:40).

Well done to our member Fiona Hewson who crossed the finish line in 8:51:30.

The full list of results can be found here.

Images: Tour de trails/Bossfoto.

Heysen Trail Ultra, SA

The Heysen Trail Ultra was held from 23-24 October in Victor Harbor, SA and offered a wide variety of distances for runners, including 115km (75 finishers), 70km (28 finishers), 53km (28 finishers), 50km (80 finishers), 42km (20 finishers), 28km (101 finishers), 22km (27 finishers), 13km (21 finishers) and 9km (3 finishers), 100mi multi-day, 100km multi-day, and a 50mi multi-day.

In the Men’s 115km, top spots went to Jarrod Allen (10:25:14, new course record), Steven Doorne (11:20:51) and Trent Frahn (11:43:06), and in the Women’s 115km, winners were Sarah Melville (14:32:09), Kate Savage (14:38:07) and Yasmin Todd (15:28:42).

Winners in the Men’s 70km were Shaun McWaters (6:35:10), Ruben Laguna (7:03:14) and Mark Long (7:14:23); winners in the Women’s 70km were Indianna Zammit (8:49:12), Sheena Appleyard (9:09:46) and Jackie Crofton (9:31:07).

In the Men’s 53km, winners were Rory McComb (6:49:07), Pierre Roussel (7:02:19) and Jake Bunworth (7:04:36); winners in the Women’s 53km were Debra Pelgrave (9:34:58), Courtney Kluge (9:45:59) and Sarah Taylor (10:03:13).

Winners in the Men’s 50km were Godfrey Slattery (4:11:42), Damon Judd-Oliver (5:37:38) and Cameron Akehurst (5:48:24); winners in the Women’s 50km were Alecia Holt (5:57:11), Kate Van Gordon (6:00:32) and Jessica Bell-White (6:24:46).

Top spots in the Men’s 42km went to Austin Botha (4:21:44), Peter Doggett (4:33:21) and Stuart Hill (5:39:42); podium finishers in the Women’s 42km were Bronwyn Young (4:29:19), Naomi Galbraith (4:39:14) and Sofia Aleshina (4:56:30).

Winners in the Men’s 28km were Peter Galanos (2:16:42), Jarrah Wallace0Gravett (2:23:19) and Damien Fidge (2:25:14); winners in the Women’s 28km were Jordan Hooper (2:41:04), Julia Manning (2:49:31) and Lindsay Hewitt (3:00:07).

Men’s 22km winners were Clay Smith (1:49:59), Daniel Cotton (2:20:25) and Steve Smith (2:25:12) whilst Women’s 22km winners were Amy-Lee D’Hotman de Villiers (2:44:53), Shana Nicole (2:45:55) and Lee Glew (3:00:04).

Winners in the Men’s 13km were Callan Markwick (1:12:41), Kyle Buchwald (1:38:57) and Daniel Miller (1:39:02); winners in the Women’s 13km were Lilly Aplin (1:29:18), Karen Johnston (1:32:34) and Amy Densley (1:33:24).

Men’s 9km winner was Clay Smith (37:13).

Women’s 9km winners were Julie Spargo (1:09:33) and Claire Spargo (1:09:33).

Full results can be located here.

Images: Sourced/Facebook.

Smurf’s Backyard Ultra, Qld

Smurf’s Backyard Ultra was held from 24 October at Smithfield MTB Park, Qld offering an LOS format for participants, of which there were 171 starters.

The winner for the 2026 edition of Smurf’s Backyard Ultra was Murray MacPherson, who completed a total of 24 laps. This year’s Assist was Ben Sinnott with 23 laps.

Third to DNF, but first female to LOS, was AUTRA’s Kelly Romano, who finished with a total of 22 laps.

Well done to all our members who ran at Smurf’s, including Clare Weiss (12 laps), Mitchell Dunn (9 laps) and Sarah Foster (8 laps).

Head to the Smurf’s website for full results.

Images: Sourced/Facebook.