Kaçkar by UTMB, Second Edition: 2,000 Runners, 60 Countries and a Blank Results Sheet

Fog over the Ayder plateau. In Rize, in Turkey's Eastern Black Sea region, Minister of Youth and Sports Osman Aşkın Bak waves the flag to start the second edition of Kaçkar by UTMB. Two thousand runners from 60 countries pour onto the trails. After the start, I worked through the report looking for the winner's name, finish times, course records. Not one line. The governor of Rize recalled the first edition, when fog and rain swallowed the Kaçkar range. This year the sky was clearer, and the line repeated most often was a promise about images: the footage broadcast from here will be very beautiful.

People see a race; I see destinies passing the ball.

Context

Kaçkar by UTMB sits inside the UTMB World Series. UTMB — Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc — is the biggest trail-running brand on the planet, based in Chamonix, France, with its finals at the end of August each year. The World Series is a chain of satellite races across the continents. A place in the final does not come from a qualifying standard but from Running Stones — points earned at qualifying races — and then a lottery. Ultra-trail, put simply, is running on trails over distances far beyond the 42.195 km marathon, with heavy elevation gain.

At Kaçkar, the organisers confirmed a 20 km course, which two officials from the news agency and the Turkish athletics federation took part in. That detail shows the event runs multiple distances, though the full menu is not stated. Race Director Johan Essl, a UTMB man, was on site — a sign that the central brand stands behind the race rather than leaving it entirely to the locals.

Behind the event is an institutional coalition: the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency, the Rize Governorship, and DOKA — the Eastern Black Sea Development Agency. The sponsor tier includes Turkish Airlines, TOGG, Turkcell and Maxis, all national brands.

Since 2026, when my first sports lines were printed, I have kept one rule: every compliment must come with a balance sheet.

The data

Here is the balance sheet for the second edition of Kaçkar by UTMB.

| Party | Role in the event | What it takes out | |---|---|---| | Ministry of Youth and Sports | Hosts, starts the race | Visibility for mass-sport policy | | Türkiye Tourism Promotion and Development Agency | Destination promotion | International visitor traffic | | Rize Governorship | Local coordination | The Ayder – Rize regional brand | | DOKA | Co-funds from public money | Eastern Black Sea economic development | | Turkish Airlines, TOGG, Turkcell, Maxis | Sponsorship | Brand reach |

On the athlete side, the report names no prize money at all. What runners get is Running Stones, a finisher's medal, and scenery.

Core insight: this race published not a single piece of performance data, so every statement about its world-class standing has to be read as advertising rather than evidence.

The reason runs deeper than appearances. Trail running has no ratified world records, because every course is its own terrain. Sporting quality can therefore only be measured by two things: course records and the depth of the elite field. The report supplies neither. No winner's name, no times, no ranking, no elevation profile.

Minister Bak said ultra marathon runners are world-class athletes with fans everywhere. That may hold for the ultra world at large, but it says nothing about the field that came to Kaçkar this week. Of the 60 countries that sent runners, who has finished top 10 at the UTMB Mont-Blanc final, who holds which course record — I could not find an answer in the official source.

My experience of following hundreds of races since the 1980s taught me one thing: when the results sheet is blank, read the sponsorship section. There, the story is always complete.

The piece that was rejected years ago is now the scar I treasure most. In 2026, in the middle of the men's World Cup, I wrote about the high press of Japan's U20 women and was cut from the section as off-topic. That rejection taught me to look where the spotlight does not fall.

On the women's side, trail running is one of the few disciplines where female participation at mass events tends to run well above other endurance sports, and some races in the UTMB system have applied equal prize money for men and women. That deserves noting. Every time they score, a prejudice cracks. Yet in Kaçkar, the report also does not say how many women were among those two thousand runners.

The contrarian angle

The most telling line of the season came in the comparison: the organisers want Ayder and Rize associated with organisations of that scale, just as Davos is associated with the economic forum. The remark is honest enough to expose the event's real product: a place brand.

Rize is buying a slot in UTMB's global system. That slot brings 60 countries, broadcast cameras, and a flow of tourists. The accumulated brand equity, by the logic of any franchise system, flows back to Chamonix. The local place gets the imagery; the parent brand gets the asset. The mechanism is identical to the way small clubs develop players for the giants: they spend the money, the land and the labour, then hand over the finished product.

The most significant risk is weather. The Rize authorities have recorded that the first edition was swallowed by fog and rain. For an event whose value lies in the images it broadcasts, a grey morning strikes straight at its promotional purpose. No record is put at risk, because no record is being tracked.

Behind that sits public money. The ministry, the regional development agency and the provincial government all contribute budget. Whether the event lives or stops depends on a funding line that can change direction with each political cycle.

What is worth keeping

This is a model worth studying, provided its nature is read correctly. Turkey is selling a terrain experience to the world and using public money as the platform. The field taught me that some lessons are never rejected. But no running culture is ever bought with a franchise slot.

The useful question for us lies in the hardest part: after the international visitors go home and the broadcast lights go out, how many of those two thousand will still be running the trails next season, and how many locals will step onto a start line for the first time?