This weekend – top trail racing returns at home and abroad

The Olympic Games relegates non-Olympic sport to playing second fiddle for the duration of the games but trail running comes into its own this weekend at the climax of the Ultra-trail Mont Blanc (UTMB) festival of trail running.

UTMB, from its base in the French Alpine centre of Chamonix, is as big as the sport gets, with the 100-mile race through France, Italy and Switzerland around Mont Blanc – western Europe’s highest peak – climaxing a week of highly competitive racing on mountain trails.

Tomorrow’s OCC will be run over 55km with 3,425 meters of positive elevation gain, from Orsières in Switzerland to Chamonix, and will be one of the week’s most competitive races, with many of the world’s leading marathon-distance trail athletes slated to line up at the start.

Swiss star, Remi Bonnet, is at the peak of his form and is a strong contender for line honours, but athletes of the calibre of British pair, Jonathan Albon and Robbie Simpson, Italy’s Francesco Puppi and a raft of others will be there to take advantage if Bonnet struggles with the distance outside his usual comfort zone.

In the women’s race, some of the world’s finest will be there to succeed last year’s winner, Toni McCann, who is moving up to the 100km. French world champion Clementine Geoffray will again face a stiff challenge from Swiss athlete, Judith Wyder, who lost a close contest to Geoffray at the world championship over 43km last June, while American pair Dani Moreno and Allie McLaughlin, Spain’s Sara Alonso, Italy’s Elisa Desco and Kiwi Caitlin Fielder will ensure sparks will fly before the podium is finalised.

Talented South African brother and sister duo, Kane and Samantha Reilly, and Kenya’s Sammy Chelengat will likely be  Africa’s strongest OCC competitors.

McCann will challenge strongly in the CCC over 100km in her first major race over the distance, but will find strong competition from Rosanna Buchauer of Germany and American Heather Jackson. If Czech athlete, Marcela Vasinova, can find her best form, she will challenge strongly for the top step on the podium.

American Adam Peterman has an enviable record in ultra-trail competition and will be hard to beat, although he will have his work cut out to hold off athletes of the calibre of Swede Petter Engdahl, speedy Spaniard, Manuel Merrilas, Americans Dakota Jones and Hayden Hawks and Italian Andreas Reiterer.

Strong-running South African, Daniel Claassen, will have an eye on the top twenty in a strong field, while his experienced compatriot, Meg Mackenzie, looks a good bet for her second top ten finish in this event.

As strong as the curtain-raisers will be this year, there is no detracting from the main event – the 100 miler circumnavigation around Mont Blanc, which gets underway at Chamonix late on Friday afternoon.

American Jim Walmsley is the biggest name in ultra-trail, bar Kilian Jornet, and will start favourite to defend his title and claim the ‘impossible’ double of winning the world’s biggest 100 milers, the Western States Endurance Run in California and the UTMB in a single year. Jornet is the only male athlete to have achieved this and Walmsley would love to join that exclusive club.

Walmsley will be up against another power-packed field with British athlete and winner of last year’s Western States, Tom Evans, potentially his strongest threat. German athlete, Hannes Namberger and Russian Dimitri Mityaev finished together to win the 2022 Ultra-trail Cape Town 100km and will again be close rivals on the mountain climbs of the Mont Blanc massif.

More than fifty elite athletes will likely contend for a top ten position and, on their day, a place on the podium, with French athlete Thibaut Baronian and Canadian-born French athlete, Mathieu Blanchard, two of the more serious contenders.

Like Walmsley, American athlete domiciled in France, Katie Schide, will be out to claim a single year Western States – UTMB double and join fellow-Americans Nikki Kimball and Courtney Dauwalter as the only female athletes to have achieved that feat.

Schide starts favourite in the absence of Dauwalter, although last year’s third-place finisher, French favourite, Blandine l’Hirondel, can be a tough customer at her best. Kiwi Ruth Croft can never be discounted and will challenge strongly for the win, while Ragna Debats of the Netherlands, Swede Ida Nilsson and Zimbabwean Emily Hawgood are all top five contenders.

South Africa’s most accomplished ultra-trail athlete, Ryan Sandes, has seldom found his best form at UTMB but will be hopeful that this will be his year, while Ultra-trail Drakensberg and George MUT 100 miler winner, Douglas Pickard, makes his debut in Europe’s great trail race.

South African ultra-trail specialist, Naomi Brand, now based in New Zealand, will be looking to continue her strong relationship with the UTMB 100 miler.

Closer to home, the strongest field in the history of the race will line up at 05h30 on Saturday for the thirtieth running of the Peninsula Ultra Fun Run (PUFfeR) in the traditional race across the spine of the Cape Peninsula.

The original route over 76km started near the lighthouse at Cape Point and ended at the Waterfront but intervention by SANParks during the COVID era saw the start move to the gate of the Cape of Good Hope Nature Reserve and the finish of the shorter 62km race to the Green Point Common.

While the vision of PUFfeR was to lead runners over the peaks and ridges of the Peninsula mountain chain, including the high point at Maclears Beacon, mountain fires and stormy conditions have enforced a variety of modifications over the years.

Recent severe storms have forced the organisers to move to the ‘Route B’ option from Constantia Nek, taking runners around the contour path to Kloof Nek, rather than via the long climb to Maclears Beacon and down Platteklip Gorge. Following Ryan Sandes’ impressive 6 hr  57 min 25 sec win on the 80km Route B in 2010, debate raged as to whether the significant reduction in vertical metres climbed on that route offset the longer distance around the contour path.

The stacked field on Saturday will add to the debate, with the ‘around the mountain’ route likely to favour the faster athletes over the stronger climbers. And Puffer debutant, Simon Tshabalala, is likely the fastest on paper.

The Free State ultra-trail athlete has excelled in his home province’s Four Peaks race and the 100 miler Sky Run in the NE Cape, but his lack of local knowledge on a course which has traditionally favoured athletes with strong navigational skills could count against him.

Tshabalala’s recent form has not matched that of his earlier years and in the absence of last year’s winner, Grobler Basson, strong-running former Gauteng athlete and 2022 and 2023 MUT Marathon winner, Iain Peterkin, has the credentials to take line honours.

Other contenders include Fish Hoek athlete and multiple winner on the Peninsula mountains, Kyle Bucklow, ultra-trail specialist Anele Bans, Southern Cape athlete, John April, and 2022 PUFfeR winner, Patrick Cameron-Smith.

North Face athlete, Emily Djock, has been on a steady upward curve since her first win at PUFfeR in 2022, climaxing with her impressive win at the 50km Dodo Trail Race in Mauritius last month, and the American-born athlete will be strong favourite to make it three in a row at PUFfeR 2024.

Kerry-Anne Marshall would undoubtedly have given her a run for her money, but the Comrades and Two Oceans gold-medallist and former UTCT 100km champion plans to take it as ‘a training run’ after working on a return to full health. Eastern Cape’s Nadia Jooste, winner of the 2023 Ultra-trail Drakensberg 100km, consistent Cape Town athlete and second place finisher last year, Lisa Geffen, and Jade Bucklow are others most likely to challenge Djock.