French athlete Hugo Deck and Jazmine Lowther of Canada were the weekend’s top performers as RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town (UTCT) celebrated its 10th anniversary in style.
2050 trail runners completed one of six races over three days (Friday 22 November to Sunday 24 November) on and beyond Table Mountain’s world-renowned scenic mountain trails – the ‘Kickstarter’ over 16km, the Table Mountain 35km, the Peninsula Traverse 55km, the Ultra-trail 100km and the Ultra-trail Cape Town over 100 miles.
Runners from every continent and almost fifty countries were unanimous that South Africa’s year-end trail-running extravaganza represented one of the best, but undoubtedly one of the toughest, trail running challenges.
Leading South African steeplechaser, Siboniso Soldaka, blitzed to the finish of the Explorer 23km on Saturday morning to break the tape at the Gardens Tech Rugby Club in a fraction over two hours, while 53-year-old British Ultra-trail runner, Stuart Secker, completed his 20th 100 miler in 43 hours and 54 minutes – just over an hour before the official race cut-off.
Two runners competing at opposite poles of the speed spectrum, but both quintessentially UTCT.
Africa’s leading trail running event showcases the world’s elite up front but is also growing into one of the most successful adventure tourism events on the continent, offering trail opportunities to runners of all abilities.
World-class athletes have graced UTCT with their presence for the past five to six years and records are increasingly hard to come by, especially in the warmer-than-usual conditions which prevailed. But top-class racing was on offer, livestreamed to all corners of the world, with two outstanding performances delivered in the UT100, the ‘Queen of Trails’.
24-year-old Marseilles-based professional athlete, Hugo Deck, and Canadian biologist and climate activist from Nelson in British Columbia, Jazmine Lowther, turned in the performances of the weekend in recording memorable victories and earning the first of the Nic Bornman medals, awarded to the top ten male and female finishers in the Ultra-trail 100km in honour of the race founder.
Deck dabbled in basketball with some success before switching to trail running. Although not short on speed, the French TERREX athlete discovered a passion and talent for ultra-distance trail running through watching videos of the former Ultra-trail World Tour.
Not having been in the sport long enough to have built a reputation in top-flight company, Deck came into UT100 under the radar but left on top of the podium, his winning time of 10:31:02 the third fastest since the longer and tougher route was created in 2021.
Only Jim Walmsley, with his 9:47:20 record in 2021 and French athlete Sebastian Spehler’s 10:16:20, in coming second to Walmsley, have run faster and Deck’s time is 14 minutes quicker than the times of leading athletes, Hannes Namberger of Germany and Russian Dimitry Mityaev’s in the past two years.
“The climb up Table Mountain was one of my highlights,” said Deck. “It reminded me a bit of where I live in Marseilles in France. I think many people should come to Cape Town – the vibe, the heat, everything is kiff here!”
Deck started conservatively, running four minutes behind defending champion, Mityaev, 20km into the race. He had moved up from 7th to 4th by the top of Platteklip Gorge and had taken the lead just before the Table Mountain aid station at 31km, where he was just ahead of compatriot Thibaut Garrivier and Portuguese athlete Miguel Arsenio.
Deck was never again headed and grew his two-minute lead over Arsenio at Llandudno (41km into the race) to six minutes at Hout Bay, after 56km. And although Arsenio closed on the descent to Alphen Trail at 75km, Deck’s strong finish saw him home 14 minutes ahead of his Portuguese rival.
American Michelino Sunseri overtook the flagging Garrivier to claim third place in 11:16:08.
Arsenio’s second place saw him earn 1420 points on the Grancanaria World Trail Majors rankings to leapfrog Chinese athlete, Guangfu Meng, into top spot for 2024. A cheque for €12 000 was presented to him at the UTCT prize giving this afternoon, a fitting birthday gift for the Portuguese athlete, who turned 28 on Friday.
“Originally I had planned to run the Madeira Island Ultra-trail in my own country,” Arsenio explained. “But an injury curtailed my training and that was no longer possible. I won the Swiss Canyon Trail in June but I needed to get a podium position in another of the World Trail Majors to challenge for the top of the table.
“I had not originally planned to come to Cape Town, but I’m very happy to be here for the first time, where I’ve enjoyed the last two weeks of my preparation. It was a tough race, but I’m very happy with my second place.”
Lowther followed a similar race strategy to that of Deck, allowing Russian athlete Antonina Iushina to lead up Platteklip before taking charge on top of Table Mountain at sunrise and she held a one minute lead on Iushina through the Table Mountain aid station at 31km.
Another Russian athlete, Ekaterina Mityaeva, followed in third, with Sam Reilly leading the South African challenge a further five minutes back in fourth. Then followed British athlete Eve Moore, German Eva Sperger and Lowther’s North Face Capetonian American teammate, Emily Djock.
Finding her mojo down the Back Table past Grootkop, Lowther moved further ahead and was eight minutes clear of Iushina and 9th overall through the Llandudno aid station at 41km. Mityaeva and Reilly held their positions while Sperger and Djock following.
Lowther had increased her lead to 13 minutes ahead of the two Russians as the athletes crossed Hout Bay Beach in late morning, with Reilly, Sperger and Djock maintaining their positions.
The Canadian appeared to grow stronger through the forest trails leading to the University and maintained her pace around the face of Table Mountain to win in 12:04:25 – 46 minutes ahead of Iushina.
Only Courtney Dauwalter, the world’s leading ultra-trail athlete, has run faster, winning in 11:20:04 in 2021. Lowther’s time is ahead of that of 2022 winner, French athlete, Camille Bruyas (12:15:21) and last year’s champion, Ruth Croft of New Zealand (12:12:20).
Mityaeva dropped out at Alphen with German athlete Eva Sperger finishing strongly to claim third in 13:07:21. Reilly and Djock completed the five-strong podium in 13:37:17 and 13:53:41 respectively.
“The trails in Cape Town are among the best I’ve raced on, and the flowers were incredible – I wanted to stop at a number of places to take it all in,” said biologist, Lowther. “Although I come from Nelson in British Columbia, at the moment I’m living on wheels in my camper-van. I’m not quite sure where next year will take me, but I hope to return to South Africa.”
Together with his TERREX teammate, Robbie Simpson, who won the 55km on Friday, Aleksei Tolstenko was able to defend his title, winning the 100 miler (164km) in convincing fashion, while Kerry-Ann Marshall added the ‘granddaddy’ title to the 100 km win she secured at UTCT in 2015.
Tolstenko met with surprising opposition from South African ultra-trail athlete, Matt Bouch, who took the lead from compatriot, Christiaan Greyling, at the Table Mountain aid station and led the race till past 50km at Hout Bay.
“I’m happy with my run,” said Bouch, who finished a competitive second to the Russian. “But my aim had been to win and I’d worked hard to achieve that. I’d been leading over Suther Peak and down into Hout Bay, but Aleksei caught me at Hout Bay Harbour.
“We ran together across the beach, but he was faster than me on the flatter trail and I had to back off and let him go. I thought that I’d catch up with him if he ran into problems, but I never saw him again until the finish.
“But I’m super-stoked. I had a DNF here last year but things came together today. Last night was perfect running conditions – not a breath of wind. Coming from Maclears as sun was setting on Friday was incredible – when you get out there running by yourself, that was really special.”
Greyling and Belgian athlete, Jerome Vanderschaeghe, were running in joint third through Hout Bay, over 13 minutes behind the leading pair. As they fell behind and Tolkstenko eased away, Bouch’s became a lone vigil, running solo for over 100km from Hout Bay to the finish.
As sunrise greeted the leaders through Scarborough and Kommetjie, Tolstenko was 37 minutes clear of Bouch and had widened the gap to almost 40 minutes after 5km along Long Beach into Noordhoek.
At one stage Greek athlete Fotis Zisimopoulos’ outstanding 2022 record of 20:48:17 was under threat, but the heat of the day slowed Tolstenko in the latter stages and he crossed the finish line in 21:06:54. Bouch claiming second in 22:10:06 with Vanderschaeghe third, a further 23 minutes back.
Gabriel Kriel ran a strong tactical race, starting slowly before coming through the field in the second half to clinch fourth, with local athlete, Anele Bans enjoying one of the best races in his career, finishing fifth, a full two hours inside his time last year.
“I’m thrilled with my run today,” said Bans. “To end two hours faster than last year is amazing. It was tough, but I’ve been putting in a lot of work, which paid off. And the support along the way is exceptional – Kloof Corner is crazy, where so many people are there to greet you.
“My support crew were exceptional. Without crew you can’t compete in 100 miles – they were so strong for me.”
Greyling had been forced out of a race for the first time in his career, calling it a day at Noordhoek. “I simply could not stop vomiting and I could not take on sufficient nutrition and fluid to see out the 20km stretch from Noordhoek to the next aid station,” Greyling explained.
In one of the racing highlights of the weekend, Cape Town athlete, Marshall, won an exciting race-long dual against fellow South African, Naomi Brand, now living in New Zealand, going one better than her second place behind world star, Hilary Allen in 2022.
Remarkably, Marshall’s finish time of 25:38:16 was just one minute faster than her 2022 time and her dual with Brand followed a similar pattern to their tussle two years ago. As she did on that occasion, Brand took out the pace with Marshall adopting a more conservative approach at the start.
Marshall had closed the gap on Brand to just over ten minutes at Scarborough but Brand had opened the gap to 20 minutes at Noordhoek, and with Marshall going through a tough patch from Kommetjie, Brand was looking the 2024 champion.
But Marshall gained a second wind as Brand began to falter and the gap had closed to 11 minutes through Constantia Glen (135km) and just four at Alphen (140km).
Brand still led at Nursery Ravine (144km) but Newlands resident, Marshall, came into her own on familiar trails into Newlands Forest and she had built a 20-minute lead running into the final aid station at UCT.
There would be no comeback for Brand, but she toughed out the final kilometres to finish in a courageous second position as evening fell, almost an hour behind Marshall but three hours ahead of third-placed Austrian athlete, Cornelia Oswald.
Race favourites Siboniso Soldaka and Bianca Tarboton lived up to the pre-racing billing with wins in the Explorer 23km race on Saturday morning, Soldaka finishing just 22 seconds ahead of Oudtshoorn athlete, Underson Ncube, in the closest contest of the weekend, while Tarboton cruised to a 20 minute victory in 2:19:17.
“No one really wanted to take the pace early on,” Ncube recalled. “There were a few of us, including Bianca Tarboton, in the lead group. So I decided to take it on and broke away on the climb through Cecilia Forest.
“I had a bit of a gap, but felt I should reign it in a bit and Siboniso caught me near the top of the Four Hundred Steps.
“We ran together after that, but I knew I had to break away before the finish or his track speed would decide the race. I tried my best to get away on the climb to Kings Blockhouse but he stuck with me.
“He surged on the last descent along the boardwalk and I couldn’t stay with him. Still, I’m happy to finish second, just a few seconds behind.”
As was the case last year, Day Three (Sunday 24 November) dawned warm, with temperatures soaring over 30 degrees at midday. That made life tough for back-end finishers of the 100 miler (which started on Friday at 5pm) and the Table Mountain 35km, which got underway at 6am this morning.
The racing up front matched the heat, as New Zealander Dan Jones powered to an impressive win after breaking clear early on and reaching the top of Platteklip Gorge 7,5km into the race in 58:32. Jones was 45 seconds up on defending champion, French athlete, Bastion Perez, with Swiss athlete Martin Anthamatten close behind in third.
Jones was still ahead at the Table Mountain aid station through 13km, although the African contingent had closed the gap, with Stellenbosch athlete, Philani Sengce, in third behind Perez. Cape Town’s Robbie Rorich and Namibian Wano Katjiri had moved up to 5th and 6th.
Jones responded by upping the ante and was 7 minutes clear of Perez and Rorich through the UCT aid station 24km into the race, with Sengce still in podium contention in 4th.
Jones opened up further in the final stretch around Table Mountain to cross the line in 3:35:16, 12 minutes up on Rorich and four minutes outside Italian Martin Dematteis’ 2022 time, with Perez a further five minutes back in third.
“The race had a really nice atmosphere,” said Jones. “Highlights would have to include running up Kloof Nek and then on top of Table Mountain for the first time. In fact, it was more runnable up there than I’d expected!
“Meeting this awesome trail community in Cape Town was a highlight, turning up for the Tuesday Trails and having a good time at a number of gatherings. There’s a good vibe here and being a Kiwi in this environment is quite nice!
“I’d love to return to be a part of UTCT again in the future.”
German Kimi Schreiber made it a Team TERREX double, redeeming her horror 55km in 2022, when laid low with cramps before limping home to take second place. Schreiber led from the start to cross the line in 7th place overall in 4:15:24, just over 10 minutes outside Hayley Preen’s race record of 4:04:48, set in 2018, and 27 minutes ahead of second-placed South African, Mila Geldenhuys, who overhauled French athlete, Isabelle Iamy, near the finish.
“I enjoyed my race today, especially to make up for my difficult race in the 55km two years ago,” said Schreiber. “No cramps today over the shorter distance, so I had much more fun!”
Not all the athletes were content to race just one of the gruelling races on offer, however.
One of South Africa’s leading adventurers, 38-year-old Nontuthuko Mgabhi, uses every minute of her life away from her high-pressure job at Richard’s Bay Coal Terminal seeking adventure while building a better planet for all. She made full use of her time in Cape Town on the weekend by completing a unique treble, racing 55km, 23km and 35km on consecutive days – just one of hundreds of trail tales to be told when the 2024 RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town is remembered.
Results: RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town
UTCT 100 Miler
Men
Women
UTCT 100km
Men (winners of the Nic Bornman medal)
Women (winners of the Nic Bornman medal)
Peninsula Traverse 55km
Men
Women
Table Mountain 35km
Men
Women
Explorer 23km
Men
Women
Kickstarter 16km
Men
Women
ends
