200-mile Triple Crown records smashed at Moab 240
Brazil's Manuela Vilaseca beat the former Triple Crown record by almost 29 hours
Mount to Coast
The Triple Crown of 200-mile races, combining three of the hardest trail ultras in North America, came to a dramatic finish this weekend at Moab 240 in Utah, where both the men’s and women’s overall records fell. Colorado’s Kilian Korth won the Moab 240 to complete a season sweep of all three races, setting a new cumulative men’s record. On the women’s side, Brazil’s Manuela Vilaseca placed second, but finished with the fastest combined time ever for the series, beating the former record by more than 29 hours.
What the Triple Crown means
The Triple Crown of 200s combines the Bigfoot 200 in Washington, Tahoe 200 in California and Nevada, and Moab 240 in Utah. Finishing all three in a single season is a monumental achievement on its own; recording the fastest cumulative time is what defines a Triple Crown record. Moab 240 is the final test, and often the deciding race.
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Korth dominates all season
Korth trains year-round in Colorado, splitting his time between alpine ridges and desert canyons. Known for his steady pacing, he entered Moab having already won Bigfoot and Tahoe earlier in the year. His victory in Moab, where he finished in 58:45:47, sealed the sweep, and his cumulative time of 156:30:20 broke the men’s record set in 2019 by Michael McKnight. Korth was followed in by Australia’s Benn Coubrough, who took second place in 68:52:44, and Arizona’s George Cyrus, who finished in 69:48:43.
Vilaseca’s historic run
Brazil’s Manuela Vilaseca delivered one of the standout performances of the year. She finished Moab 240 as the second woman overall in 76:12:20, but her cumulative time from all three races—201:02:06—broke the women’s Triple Crown record of 230:24:21, set by Jessica Pekari in 2018, by nearly 29 hours.
“When I heard of the Triple Crown, I was very tempted to try it, not because I thought I could break any records, but because I thought I wasn’t capable of finishing them,” she told Canadian Running. “With this, I mean that you should not doubt yourself and seek your limit. This is my philosophy, or else life would be too boring. Now that it’s over, it seems unreal. A dream I never want to wake up from. It makes me especially happy to see how many people were inspired by my story, and that now will seek their limits themselves. Happiness. This is the only virus we want to spread.”
While Vilaseca’s Triple Crown finish was mind-blowing, she wasn’t the winner of Moab 240. Becca Rick of Utah took the win (and fifth place overall) in 72:07:36. “If you had told this fair-weather runner that she’d be in a perpetual state of pruney-finger conditions, navigating trails that formed into muddy rivers, and managing foot tendon issues that resulted from mud and clay caking on shoes and pulling on muscles in new and uncomfortable ways all for 72 hours, I’m not sure she’d have started,” Rick posted on Instagram post-race. Washington’s Deborah Anderson took third in 95:08:22, a strong finish after a DNF at the race last year.
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To check out full results for both the Moab 240 and Triple Crown finishers, head here.
