McCann, van Heerden top on Sandes’ mountain trail

By Stephen Granger

South Africa’s leading marathon-distance trail athletes, Johardt van Heerden and Toni McCann, raced to impressive victories in the inaugural Sanlam Cape Town Trail Marathon on a testing 46km circuit over and around Table Mountain this morning (Saturday 16 October).

The signature Ryan Sandes race – the ultra-trail star planned and designed the route – proved a triumph for Cape Town and the race organisers.  Run in cold, windy and wet conditions – perfect for trail (but a nightmare for road) – many of the exhausted athletes praised the race as one of the best of their lives and one which will undoubtedly draw athletes from far and wide in future years.

For Van Heerden, it was two in a row following his win at last week’s Otter African Trail Run over 42km.  While few would have thought he would have recovered sufficiently to take on and beat a top field, Van Heerden was not one of them.  He timed his race to perfection, taking the lead from his long-time close rival, Kane Reilly, in the final quarter to clinch a hard-fought victory in 4 hrs 17 min 22 sec.

Reilly, who had struggled at the Otter, was back to his best, jockeying for pole position with Zimbabwe-born Collin Kanyimo for much of the race, eventually finishing just three minutes adrift of Van Heerden in second. Kanyimo faded badly on the last climbs and finished 15 minutes behind Reilly in third.

Unlike Van Heerden, McCann did not race the Otter last week, with a view to today’s race, and her decision paid dividends.  The Cape Town athlete pulled ahead early on, opening a gap that none of her rivals could ever contemplate closing. She enjoyed the first, more technical, half and gritted her teeth through the more runnable second to come home in 10^th position overall in 5:03:15 in her long-awaited first race on Table Mountain.

“Where is Ryan Sandes? I want to kill him!” joked McCann as she crossed the finish line, an indication of the tough challenge the 46km marathon affords. “But in all seriousness, that’s one incredible race. Cape Town is just so privileged to have a trail with so much spectacular beauty.

“It was a struggle most of the way, although I enjoyed the first part with the technical stretches and challenging weather.  Then, when I started the more runnable stretch from Kirstenbosch, I found my legs struggled to get going and the second half was much tougher for me, especially with a strong headwind against us along the contour path.  I kept thinking one of the other women would catch me, but I managed to hang on.

“Although I did have some FOMO last week when the others were running the Otter, it was definitely the right decision.  There’s no way I would have been able to run them both!”

2018 Comrades Marathon champion, Ann Ashworth, struggled with the icy conditions on top of Table Mountain and the more testing technical sections, but finished strongly to take second place, a yawning 26 minutes behind McCann and three minutes clear of local mountain runner, Kristin Heath. “Without doubt, the toughest trail run I’ve ever run,” admitted Ashworth.

Former Ultra-trail Cape Town winner, Kerry-Anne Marshall, enjoyed a good preparation race ahead of her Ultra-trail Cape Town 100km at the end of the year, finishing fourth.

Winner of the One Day AfricanX in Elgin four weeks ago, Kanyimo set the early pace and had a useful lead at the start of the climb up Platteklip Gorge. I knew I would struggle on the climbs – I walked most of them – so I went out fast to get a lead going into Platteklip,” the 36 year old Pretoria-based runner, Kanyimo, explained.

Although the strong-climbing Reilly closed the gap up Platteklip, Kanyimo was still in the lead at the summit and set off in the mist towards Maclears Beacon.  Reilly eventually caught his rival on the descent from Maclears along Smuts Track, making use of his ability on the slippery, rocky section to close the gap.

The two ran together for the next 20km, Kanyimo getting ahead on the descents and Reilly drawing level on the flats and the climbs.

Running into Kirstenbosch following the Rooikat descent, Kanyimo was 15 seconds clear of Reilly, with Lesotho athlete, Thabo Moitsepi 20 seconds further behind in third.  Van Heerden was running comfortably, 90 seconds off the lead.

Reilly quickly closed the gap as the athletes headed towards Newlands Forest and the two raced together through the King’s Blockhouse checkpoint, with Van Heerden lurking ominously, just 20 seconds behind.  Moitsepi had fallen back and was ten minutes off the lead, just ahead of previous UTCT winner, Eric Ngubane, with Robbie Rorich starting to make his move towards the podium positions.

“I felt I should conserve my energy early one, as I was unsure how I would have recovered from Otter,” Van Heerden explained.  “So I let the others race ahead and moved up slowly from behind.  I was feeling good and drew level with the leaders shortly after King’s Blockhouse, along the Middle Traverse.

“I ran with Kane and Collin for about a kilometre and then I pushed very hard on the climb up Oppelskop at about 32km.  I managed to open a gap, although Kane was running very well, and it was not easy to get away from him.”

But Van Heerden was back to his best form, and no one could prevent him racing clear and on to another victory, in what is likely to be his last race for the year.

Leading Cape Town road athlete, Siboniso Soldaka, won a close fought Peace Trail 22km over the traditional Signal Hill – Lion’s Head trail ahead of Llewellyn Groenewald, with Lijan van Niekerk a comfortable winner in the women’s competition, ahead of UTD 21km winner, Julia Bickel.

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