Kristina Schou Madsen from Denmark lowered the women's ascent time to 6h52m54s on 2/23/2018 via the Mweka Route. Her Garmin track shows a total round trip time of around 13h30m, so much slower than Maciel's RT FKT. gearjunkie.com has an interview:
Why did you choose Kilimanjaro?
Well, Josephine Dewett – who also made an attempt to break the record – wrote to me last year if I wanted to climb Kilimanjaro with her, but to do it a bit faster than a usual trek. I had a look on the internet to check out how fast you actually could do it, and I saw that the female world record at that time was a bit over 8 hours by Anne-Marie Flammersfeld. Later that year, Fernanda Maciel smashed that record down to 7:08, and I had to step up!
Had you climbed it before?
No.
What did you do for preparation?
It is hard to be a mountain runner in Denmark. Our highest peak is 187 meters above sea level, so when I do hill reps I do a lot of them!
I have also done a lot of treadmill training with elevation and lots of hours on a stair machine, but mostly I enjoy to run outside. But to get the strength in my legs I needed to train alternative ways. I run about 80–110 km per week plus strength and other sports like biking, spinning, and boxing.
What other big FKTs have you done or tried in the past?
I have never done an FKT before.
What kind of shoes did you wear?
Hoka One One Speedgoat.
What gear did you carry?
I had an UltrAspire vest with water and energy and had more water and energy on different spots on the mountain to pick up. I also had my poles with me all the time. At 4,700 meters I put on more clothes as I got more cold.
Did you have any aid?
We started two Danish women from Mweka Gate, and a Danish guide from Topas Travel, Simon Grimstrup, followed me almost to the top. During the way up, different guys from Tanzania tried to follow me.