Another Island Race Says ‘Au Revoir’ to UTMB?

According to Wider, a French trail magazine we will not see a 2025 edition of the Mauritius by UTMB event (quotes auto translated into English):

YOTTA SPORTS today announces its decision to break its contract with the UTMB, and not to organize the 2nd edition of the UTMB WORLD SERIES stage “Mauritius by UTMB”. The organizer, an actor in the development of outdoor sporting events, explains this.

I had been wondering about this for a bit now as the 2025 dates hadn’t been updated yet on the UTMB website. Announced just over two years ago, Mauritius joined Mountain Ultra-Trail in South Africa as the second World Series event in Africa. The first edition in 2024 had only 703 starters making it one of the smallest UTMB events. Given the remote island location it seemed that UTMB was trying to attract affluent trail runners looking for a destination race, rather than just cater to the locals. This seemed to have not penciled out for the organizers in Mauritius.

This growing pressure imposed by UTMB is increasingly difficult to bear. It also impacts local partners who are struggling to find a return on investment that is commensurate with their efforts. This situation endangers the economic sustainability of the project while risking disappointing the participants, for whom YOTTA SPORTS is committed to always offering the best possible service.

This is the second ‘island race’ splitting with UTMB after Transvulcania and UTMB separated ways about a year ago. I had been fascinated with all the island races joining UTMB. There’s clearly a tourism angle they are trying to exploit here, and I don’t mean exploit in a negative way: “Tell runners to come visit an island that relies heavily on tourism money, preferably not during peak season and let the local economy reap the rewards.

I don’t pretend to understand the economics of events of this scale, but squeezing the local race organizers (to the point that they are running out of water at aid stations – a problem I heard again happening at Grindstone this year) is not the way to build lasting partnerships and a healthy World Series. Maybe their shortsightedness is good for our sport and the faster they stumble the faster they have to make adjustments and learn? Or go away all together as some would hope.

Another observation: The Mauritius event seems to have not been an event owned by UTMB/Ironman directly but one that fell into their franchise category. If UTMB is willing to take on these type of partnerships we maybe see more regular movement on the calendar with races joining and departing the World Series.

I have not updated the ECC calendar yet as I am still waiting on confirmation from UTMB on this.

Via the Trail Talk WhatsApp group.