About
Daniel Jones is a New Zealand ultrarunner born on September 26, 1990, in Whakatāne, who has established himself as one of the most respected and consistently excellent performers in Southern Hemisphere ultra trail racing while steadily building a global reputation through UTMB-series racing and appearances at Western States 100. Raised in the competitive outdoor sporting culture of New Zealand, he spent five years of intensive cross-country and track racing in the United States before returning home and competing successfully in multisport events across New Zealand and China, before committing fully to trail running. He turned professional with adidas TERREX and races internationally across distances from 50km to 170km. His connection to the Kepler Challenge — the 60km mountain trail race through Fiordland National Park widely considered New Zealand's most prestigious trail event — is unparalleled: he has won it five times. He has twice won the Tarawera Ultra-Trail by UTMB 102k (2024 and 2026), setting the fastest time on record, and won the UTA50 at Ultra-Trail Australia. On the global stage he finished fifth at Western States 100 in 2023 and twelfth at UTMB, and his consistency across the world's most demanding race formats has earned him a UTMB Index of 942. He writes a Substack newsletter, Lessons from the Long Run, at danielcjones.substack.com, offering unusually candid insight into professional trail racing and training.
Notable Wins
- — Kepler Challenge ×5
- — Tarawera Ultra-Trail by UTMB T102 2024 (course record) and 2026
- — UTA50 Ultra-Trail Australia
- — Western States 100 5th (2023)
- — 12th – UTMB Mont-Blanc 2023
Follow Daniel Jones's races in the Crewed app
Download Crewed →