UTMB Partners With Suunto

Suunto joins UTMB to become their official technical partner. From Suunto’s announcement:

We have been involved in trail running since its inception. Now we are joining the UTMB World Series, supporting runners in achieving their dreams with GPS sports watches featuring industry-leading battery life and purpose-built features for training and racing.

From the UTMB press email:

As official GPS watch and technical partner of the UTMB World Series, Suunto will support runners in navigating the trails and achieving their dreams across the 41 UTMB World Series Events, by bringing its heritage and experience with GPS sports watches. Athletes with a Suunto Vertical or Suunto Race watch can download intuitive GPS maps in three different map styles with important landmarks, contour lines, water, paths and different sorts of terrain highlighted. Maps are available for each UTMB World Series Event, whether you are running the 100K CCC^® (Courmayeur-Champex-Chamonix) in the European Alps, the 50K Kodiak Ultra Marathons by UTMB^® in California, the 100M Black River Peak race in the sugarcane fields for Mauritius by UTMB^®… or any other race of the circuit.

The special mapping feature is a smart addition.

Finland/Asia-based Suunto replaces America-based Wahoo as sponsor of the World Series, which could indicate a shift of priorities for UTMB, and an awakening of European-based brands to the marketing opportunities that UTMB offers.