Ultimate Trails of Manitoba Awards Final Standings
On Saturday, November 2, the Manitoba Association of Trail Runners presented the awards in the third edition of our Ultimate Trails of Manitoba series (UTofMB).
The UTofMB is a way to reward members for showing up to in their local trail running community. We award points to members based on how many races they complete, with extra points for trail maintenance, volunteering, top performances, and other categories that reward sportsmanship and community-building.
This year saw a tight battle for the top of the standings between a handful of dedicated runners and volunteers. Notably folks in the top of the standings made significant investments in the community by racing in almost every race possible or volunteering at most of our trail work days.
Top finishers
The race was so tight at the top that the series ended in a two-way tie for both first and third positions, with Dave Bergbusch and Alex Pinilla tying for the top spot with 288 points and Barb Sousa and Kirti Sharma tying for the next highest number of points at 276. We broke the ties with the member who had also earned to most trail work points.
This put Alex in top position, followed by Dave in second, Barb in third, and Kirti in fourth. In fifth place was Ryan Bobychuk, who ran his first trail race at Bellringer 5 Hour in 2023 and was hooked, and earned the most cumulative points in the race participation category.
(L to R): Dave Bergbusch and Alex Pinella show off their awards at the Ultimate Trails of Manitoba Awards Night on November 2, 2024. This is Dave’s second year in the top two.
Guardian of the Trails Award
Urban Trail Canada sponsors the Guardian of the Trail Award which recognizes the MATR member with the most combined points from volunteering at trail work events AND races this year! This year, the award recipient is Alex Pinella, who attended seven of our trailwork events.
Category Awards & Prize Winners
Trail Prodigy: Tekla Cunningham
Master of Masters: Lee Ann Benson
Race Volunteers: Helen Baker, Kirti Sharma, Barb Sousa
Longest Time, Biggest Heart runners: Drew Shore and Shelley Kyle
Fresh Blood runners: Tim Catcher and James Doermer
First of the Fence: Mike Ocko
Tour Grit : Lisa Anderson
Racing Across Regions: Kelly Zipp
Middle of the Pack members: Joel Toews, Cat Brown, Mike Monaco, and Brad Harder
Trailwork volunteers: Leif Larsen (and Bjorn), Dave Bergbusch, and Joanne Keeping
Finishers: Dylan Marty, Ian Lawrence, Randi Hunter, Cathie Coughlin, Maria Purificacion, and Joel Simard
Full standings
As an organization we are looking forward to our fourth annual Ultimate Trails of Manitoba series to reward and recognize the community for racing and volunteering in 2025. Points toward the 2025 UTofMB series accumulate between Nov. 3, 2024 and Oct. 25, 2025.
Support for the series
MATR would like to acknowledge the generous support we receive from businesses and individuals in order to provide prizes for this series.
Photo gallery
Click the photo to view our full photo gallery from the UTofMB Awards Night and Trails in Motion 12 Film Tour evening on November 2, 2024. Photos are free for you to use. Please tag @manitoba_trail_runners and @jin_lee_photography when sharing to Instagram and Manitoba Association of Trail Runners on Facebook.