Many of the country's leading trail athletes are expected to race at Karkloof in September. Lijan Burger, Nwabisa Mjoli and Bianca Tarboton - South Africa's women's team in the mountain running race at last year's World Champs in Austria
Athletics South Africa is pleased to announce a national championship for trail and mountain running in September this year.
The 2024 ASA Trail and Mountain Running Championship will be hosted by the Karkloof Trail Run, which takes place at the Karkloof Country Club in the KwaZulu-Natal midlands from 19 – 22 September 2024. A range of events from 16 km to 100 miles (170km) will provide runners with a variety of choice to maximise their success and enjoyment.
For the first time, the national trail championship will incorporate a mountain running event, in line with World Athletics’ new direction, which saw its second World Mountain and Trail Running Championship take place in Innsbruck, Austria, last June.
Combining the two disciplines of trail and mountain running has had the effect of bringing a wider range of athlete into the sport, integrating track and field, road, cross country and trail and adding substantial benefits to and opportunities for our athletes.
Leading athletes from track and road, such as Adriaan Wildschutt and Gerda Steyn, make substantial use of trail running in their training programmes and could well feature prominently in the sport in the future.
“We welcome the news that Karkloof will be hosting our national trail and mountain championships this year,” said ASA President, James Moloi. “The geographical location and nature of the course at Karkloof will provide greater opportunity for our talented development athletes to participate and excel and to begin to challenge for places on the team for the next World Championships in Spain in September 2025.
“I was delighted that ASA took a team to the World Championships in Austria last year and that our athletes competed well against very strong opposition from almost 170 countries. That was an important learning process and a step towards even stronger participation at the next World Championships.
“Our national championship at Karkloof offers a range of events from shorter to ultra-distances and I encourage distance athletes from all over South Africa to take part.”
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