Festival of trail races an ideal platform for new-look Toni

By Stephen Granger

Leading South African trail athlete, Toni McCann, laces her new-look trail shoes this weekend (Saturday 5 March) for her first race of the year – the Transgranaria 43km, part of the series of races making up the 20^th anniversary of the festival of trail races across the north Atlantic island of Gran Canaria.

McCann is one of several leading Southern African athletes who have recently signed for the German shoe giant, adidas. While Gerda Steyn will be looking to build on her impressive road CV with Cape-Town based adidas South Africa, McCann and a yet-to-be-named second top trail athlete have signed with adidas TERREX, a relative newcomer to trail making significant waves in the sport.

SPNAfrica spoke to the athletes about their move to adidas and their hopes for distance-running competition in 2022. This second report in a trilogy focuses on McCann, one of the country’s most formidable trail athletes in recent years, having posted record-breaking performances at several high-profile races including the Otter Trail, Whale Trail, Ultra-trail Drakensberg and Cape Town Trail Marathon. 

McCann embarked on her first significant overseas campaign in Europe last year, achieving several notable performances, and believes signing with adidas TERREX will provide an ideal platform to build on her international career. She can’t wait to link up with teammates who include the likes of UK’s Holly Page, New Zealander Ruth Croft and Emily Hawgood from Zimbabwe.

“I’m really excited by being part of the adidas TERREX squad. It was quite a big step for me as it meant leaving my job as well as previous sponsor (McCann had been employed by another shoe company on their social media and broad communications team) but I’m excited by what life with the Team TERREX holds.

“I’ve been associated with some other good companies, but I was immediately impressed with the professionalism of Team TERREX. I was phoned by (senior sports marketing manager) Robert Mücke, who is in charge of the team liaison, and he clearly understood trail running. He was clear on adidas TERREX’s vision and targets and I felt I could easily fit in with this team.

“Last year I was more or less on my own in travelling to races in Europe, having to provide for accommodation and travel. Now I will be part of a professional team of athletes with everything taking care of. All I need to focus on will be my training and race preparation.  For example, adidas TERREX have booked accommodation in Chamonix (in the French Alps) for the team for more than two months before Ultra-trail Mont Blanc, and I’m so looking forward to being able to prepare optimally for the UTMB OCC 56km race.”

Mücke was delighted to welcome McCann into the fold. “While performance, gender equality and diversity are decisive elements for creating our athlete portfolio we pay a lot of attention to personality when we sign athletes” said Mücke. “Our aim is to get best-in-class athlete insights, testing, feedback, and indisputable authentication on the trails and we believe that Toni can make a substantial contribution in this respect.”

McCann gained her introduction to UTMB last year, when she rented a small apartment and bagged a solid top 15 position in the competitive OCC 56km. With the professional team support she will enjoy this year, there is little doubt that a top ten position, or better, is within her grasp.

Coincidentally, McCann first became acquainted with Page and Croft when she ran the 2018 Otter African Trail Race over 42km, which attracted many of the world’s top trail athletes as it doubled as the Golden Trail Grand Finale that year. Competing in her first race over 30km, McCann found herself in the lead and ahead of the world’s trail elite going into the final quarter.

Page and Croft, consistently among the world’s leading trail athletes in the past five years, overhauled her in the final stages to take the first two places, but McCann held on to grab the final podium position as a complete unknown. She’s unknown no longer!

McCann is looking forward to putting her background in nutrition – she is a qualified dietician – into an income-generating opportunity and hopes to start by adding this bow string to the Flat Rock Endurance team, where she has commenced duties as an online coach under Flat Rock founder and her own coach, Erin van Eyssen.

“It’s early days, but so far I’m really enjoying helping other runners realise their potential in the way Erin has helped me. We share similar philosophies towards running and life and it’s good to formally be a part of Flat Rock.”

Following Transgranaria, McCann will ‘island-hop’ to join her new team at the season-opening training camp on the Canaries island of Fuerteventura, just 100km off the north west coast of Africa. She plans to travel to Europe in May and will be taking on several high profile races, including the Innsbruck Alpine Trail Festival in Austria, the Zugspitz Ultra Trail in Germany, the adidas Infinite Trails Race in Austria and the UTMB OCC in France, before returning home in September.

McCann comes from a family of high achievers with her older sister a leading set-designer in the Cape Town film industry and her younger sister well on her way to excelling as a ballerina. “I feel I have to up my game considerably to keep up with my sisters!” McCann joked. “I’m sure that joining adidas TERREX will help me to do that.”

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