Thursday, April 10, 2025

Extreme Sports

Africa is the new best playground for all types of Xtreme Sports. Also see XOA, SPNA’s own TV series, now streaming on SPNAfrica.co.za

Cowboys head internationals at UTCT

by Stephen Granger Cape Town, South Africa is a long way from cowboy territory.  Jim Walmsley is the best-known of a group of runners raised in Arizona, USA, who once called themselves the "Coconino Cowboys" after the second-largest county in the...

Don’t forget the OVER the Mountain race, on Cape Town’s marathon weekend

By Stephen Granger Prodigal Khumalo and Toni McCann start as favourites to take the inaugural titles in the long-awaited Sanlam Cape Town Trail Marathon to be run over Table Mountain. The Ryan Sandes’ signature race has all the potential to become...

Elazzaoui flies Africa’s flag at the Golden Trail

By Stephen Granger Leading Moroccan trail athlete, Elhousine Elazzaoui, flies the African flag at this weekend’s grand finale of the 2021 Golden Trail Series on the island of El Hierro in the Canary Island Group. The Atlantic Ocean island lies a...

An ultra-fast Otter could be on the cards

By Stephen Granger It’s not for nothing that the Otter African Trail Run carries the epithet “The Grail of Trail”.  The fabled footrace between Storm’s River and Nature’s Valley along South Africa’s most popular hiking trail takes place tomorrow (Saturday 9...

African runners campaign for 2021 Golden Trail

By Stephen Granger Africa’s leading marathon-distance trail athlete, Elhousine ‘Hassan’ Elazzaoui, ends his campaign to qualify for the Golden Trail World Series (GTWS) grand-final at the sixth and final GTWS race in the French Basque centre of Ascain over the...

An adventurer turns to trail running

By Stephen Granger Well-known South African adventurer and mountaineer, Sibusiso Vilane, has a new challenge in his sights – to race the Otter African Trail Run in the Southern Cape on Saturday 9 October in conjunction with many of the...

SkyRunning SA and AfricanX events mark trail bounce-back

by Stephen Granger Robbie Rorich and Karien Bezuidenhout were the winners of the Mont Rochelle SkyRace in the Franschhoek mountains on Saturday 18 September – the first in the inaugural SkyRunning SA series - while Collin Kanyimo and Kerry-Anne Marshall...

Living to run at this year’s Otter

By Stephen Granger When Sinovuyo Ngcobo lines up at the start of this year’s Otter African Trail Run a day before his 26th birthday, alongside top South African trail athlete and former Otter champion, Ryan Sandes, he will be living his...

Western Europe’s highest mountain woos Africa’s trail runners (part 2)

By Stephen Granger While the full circumnavigation around Mont Blanc in the form of the Ultra-trail Mont Blanc 100 miler is undoubtedly the showpiece of this week’s running festival at the French Alpine town of Chamonix, the shorter-distance faces have...