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...
Cape Town Marathon is”on”
Stephen Mokoka feeds off the support from an activation station en route to winning the 2018 Cape Town Marathon. Photo: Stephen Granger
by Stephen Granger
It’s all systems go for the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, following Wednesday's (September 15) 30-days-to-go announcement that...
Its all about altitude and diet – Ethiopian SPAR Women’s Grand Prix winner Tade...
“It’s all about the chickens,” was Ethiopian athlete Tadu Nare’s explanation for her impressive speed in racing to a record-breaking victory in this morning’s (Saturday 4 September) SPAR Women’s Grand Prix race in Cape Town.
The diminutive athlete from the...
Learning at altitude – African trail runners blown away by Mont Blanc
by Stephen Granger
The dust has settled on the first post-COVID Ultra-trail Mont Blanc (UTMB), and the trail and ultra-distance world is reflecting on the most intense competition in the 18-year history of the world’s largest trail event, a week...
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...
Sportspeople can pivot too – the story of a rugby player turned ultra-distance runner
By Stephen Granger
Two years ago, a re-wired former South African provincial rugby player signalled his arrival on the ultra-trail scene with a convincing win in the 50km Bastille Day Trail Run. Last weekend, Matt Healy reminded the local trail...