Iceland’s Andrea Kolbeinsdóttir Wins the Golden Trail World Series Grand Finale

Andrea Kolbeinsdóttir arrived at the Golden Trail World Series Grand Finale with a qualifying ticket earned at a national series race in Australia, and on Saturday she left Muju, South Korea, as its winner, running the rain-soaked course in 3:19:56 and finishing almost six minutes clear of the series leader.

That leader, Romania’s Mădălina Florea, finished second, which was enough to give the Scott athlete her second straight overall title on 1,164 points, ahead of Caroline Kimutai on 1,016 and Ruth Gitonga on 982. Florea won three of the five series races she started this year, at Québec Mega Trail, the Pitz Alpine Glacier Trail in Austria and Sierre-Zinal, and was runner-up at the other two, Ledro Sky Trentino and now Muju. She sealed her first title the same way in 2025, with second place at the final in Ledro. “It’s the hardest race I’ve ever done. I couldn’t feel my body,” she said at the finish, according to the series’ race report.

Muju Trail covers 28.6K (17.8 miles) with 2,313 meters (about 7,590 feet) of climbing, with the rain making the stone steps slick and leaf litter hiding the footing on the descents. Kimutai pushed the pace on the opening climb toward Seolcheonbong, and Florea caught her halfway down the first descent to Baengnyeonsa Temple, a 2.5K drop averaging a 28 percent grade. Kolbeinsdóttir made up her ground on that same descent, went past Kimutai, and then reeled Florea in on the climb back up to Hyangjeokbong, the course’s high point at more than 1,600 m.

From there the two swapped the lead for much of the race. Kolbeinsdóttir fell on the second descent and still reached 17K 35 seconds ahead, only for Florea to move back in front before the last big climb to Chilbong: 2.2K at an average grade of 25.2 percent, with pitches over 40 percent where runners were using their hands on the rock. Kolbeinsdóttir broke away on that climb, crested it with a lead of nearly three minutes, and kept adding to it on the run down to the finish.

Behind the leading pair, Kimutai fell on the second descent and slipped back, which ended any chance of her overtaking Florea in the standings. Mexico’s Miriam Morales took third, 9:15 behind the winner, and held off Madalina Amariei by just 24 seconds, despite a fall of her own on the Chilbong climb. Hanna Groeber, back from the wrist fracture she suffered at the Great Wall race in China, dropped out with muscle problems.

At home in Iceland, Kolbeinsdóttir, 27, is best known for the Laugavegur Ultra Marathon, the 53.6K (33.3-mile) trail race through the country’s southern highlands, which she won every year from 2021 to 2025, and her 4:22:56 in 2023 is the fastest women’s time in the race’s records. She came to the trails from the track, where she won Icelandic titles at 1,500m and 3,000m in 2017 and represented Iceland at the 2018 World Half Marathon Championships. Her form this season had been building, too: she was fifth at Ledro Sky Trentino, with the fastest women’s time on its downhill segment, and four weeks before Muju she won the women’s race at the Nice Côte d’Azur by UTMB 50K, ninth overall.

She was in Melbourne in March when her coach suggested she enter a Golden Trail national race, and she went on to take the women’s title at the Donna Double at Warburton Trail Fest outside the city. “I won it and earned a Golden Ticket to come here to South Korea,” she said. She was one of 19 athletes who reached Muju through eight Golden Ticket races on three continents, and Grand Finale podium finishers who arrive from outside the top 30 earn a place in the 2027 series.

The men’s final on Sunday went to Elhousine Elazzaoui of Morocco, who won his third overall title by just two points over Patrick Kipngeno. Kolbeinsdóttir had been thinking about a move to longer races next year, and Saturday has given her another option. “Maybe I’ll dedicate next year to the Golden Trail World Series,” she said.