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...
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...
Western Europe’s highest mountain woos African trail runners (part 1)
By Stephen Granger
The highest mountain in Western Europe and the second highest in Europe, Mont Blanc, has long offered significant challenges to mountaineers and skiers. It also looks down on the world’s biggest trail event, which got underway this...
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...
Scramble for places as Trail addition for Cape Town Marathon gets real
By Stephen Granger
The only standard marathon on the African continent to have achieved World Athletics gold status has added a trail marathon carrying the signature of the country’s preeminent athlete trail athlete to its bouquet of events, from 2021.
The...
Potential African moves on ‘Fast and Furious”
By Stephen Granger
Several of Africa’s leading trail athletes take on the best in the world on Saturday (7 August) at one of the biggest and oldest races on the calendar – the Sierre Zinal (SZ) 31km – raced over...
African challenge on Golden Trail from Morocco’s Elazzaoui
by Stephen Granger
Norwegian athlete Stian Angermund made it three in a row in the Golden Trail World Series (GTWS) at the 20km Dolomyths Run in the Italian Alps on Sunday morning (18 July), while Moroccan Elhousine ‘Hassan’ Elazzaoui began...
South Africa’s McCann “splodges” to first victory in Europe’s summer season.
by Stephen Granger
Cape Town trail athlete, Toni McCann, got her European summer off to a flying start with a convincing victory in the Gruyere Trail Charmey 24km race in western Switzerland on Saturday (July 17).
Recent heavy rains in the...