Lavaredo 120K: Namberger's Fourth in a Row, Sunmaya Budha Rewrites the Women's Record

The Lavaredo 120K starts at midnight from Corso Italia in Cortina d'Ampezzo. Headlamps across the start grid, the Dolomite peaks invisible above in the darkness, and a course that sends runners into the mountains through the night before returning them to Cortina — exhausted, sometimes transformed — hours later. It is one of the sport's most theatrical race setups, and Saturday night's edition produced results to match.

Germany's Hannes Namberger won the 120K for the fourth consecutive year, setting a new course record of 11:45:31. Nepalese runner Sunmaya Budha claimed the women's title with a comeback win over Australia's Lucy Bartholomew in 13:33:18 — also a new course record.

Namberger: Four Straight

The longevity argument was already settled by three consecutive wins. What makes the 2026 result notable is the margin at which Namberger established it: a new course record, not simply a fourth win. He ran into the pre-dawn darkness of the Ampezzo Dolomites with a field that included the same names that have challenged him across multiple editions, and he came back fastest.

The race narrative ran as a measured contest through the early hours. Namberger tracked a long battle with Andreas Reiterer and Tobias Geiser through the climb sections and along the ridgelines before the Misurina lake section — one of the race's key transitional points, where runners drop briefly toward the valley before climbing again. It was here that Namberger extended his advantage, leaving Reiterer and Geiser to run together through the final kilometres and take second and third.

The 120K's specific demand — consecutive climbing blocks through a night start, then a final return that covers terrain runners have already seen in the dark, now in daylight — requires a calibration of effort that experienced racers manage differently from debutants. Namberger has logged enough of these that the calibration is automatic. The course record confirms it.

Budha: The Comeback

If Namberger's win was defined by control, Budha's was defined by its opposite. The Nepalese runner's comeback over Bartholomew — who had led or contested the lead for significant portions of the race — produced the women's result late in the race's arc.

Bartholomew is a known quantity at long mountain ultras: the Australian has raced across multiple UTMB World Series events and brings consistent aerobic depth that makes her dangerous through the final third of a race when others are fading. That she was still in contention deep into the Lavaredo 120K is a product of exactly this consistency.

Budha's push came later — and held. She crossed in 13:33:18, a new women's course record. Bartholomew took second.

Lavaredo is a UTMB World Series event, which means its points feed into the qualification and ranking system for UTMB Mont-Blanc itself in August. A 120K win here carries meaningful UTMB Index points for both Namberger and Budha, with implications for start-list positioning and qualification tier at the season's marquee event.

The 50K

The shorter 50K race, which had started earlier on June 26, wrapped up results that are covered in our June 26 Lavaredo event report.

Coming Next

The UTMB World Series calendar continues toward the main August block, with the CCC, OCC, TDS, and UTMB itself clustered in the final week of August in Chamonix. For athletes heading to the Cortina region to run these roads themselves, our Cortina d'Ampezzo trail running guide covers the Tre Cime loop, the Nuvolau ridge, and the logistics of basing in the Ampezzo Dolomites for a training block.