Toni McCann on song in the Canaries, Kenya’s Diana Chepkemoi has a strong run in the Trangranaria

By Stephen Granger

South African trail athlete, Toni McCann, ran a superb race to finish second to local favourite, Sara Alonso Martinez from Spain, at the challenging Transgrancanaria 43km Marathon, run on the Spanish north Atlantic island of Gran Canaria over the weekend.

Spanish athlete, Pablo Villa, and Ragna Debats of the Netherlands were crowned champions in the gruelling ‘all day out’ Transgranaria coast to coast ‘Classic’ over 126km with 6919 metres of vertical ascent across ten major peaks of the volcanic island.

Villa crossed the finish line at Parque Sur in 13 hrs 37 min 29 sec – twenty minutes clear of his compatriot Pau Capell, with a third Spanish athlete, Pere Aurell, winner of the 2020 Otter African Trail Run in South Africa, third. Debats won the women’s race by the same margin as Villa’s with American Abby Hall filling the runner-up berth.

Ever-popular British athlete, Tom Evans, completed a perfect comeback from injury with a convincing victory in the “Advanced” 62km in 5:10:38 ahead of Spanish athlete Aritz Egea with Swiss athlete Ariane Wilhem taking honours in the women’s competition.

But African eyes were on the 43km marathon and McCann’s first race in the white and black colours of the trail team adidas TERREX, and she ran one of the best races of her career. “I think it’s definitely the best race of my international competition,” said a delighted McCann at the finish. Kenyan Diana Chepkemoi finished 8th after being up with the leaders early on.

Alonso, running in the colours of Salomon, had lived on Gran Canaria for several months leading up to the race to get to know the track, the conditions and the ‘feel’ of the island and her dedicated focus paid dividends with a pillar to post victory.

The runners experienced a pot pourri of weather patterns, with the start of the marathon at one of the island’s high points at El Garanon, before plunging down a slippery technical single-track rocky descent.

“I guess it was a bit slippery and dangerous initially, but that’s what we sign up for in this adventure sport!” said McCann. “And to be honest, it’s the running I really love and quite similar to many of our trails on Table Mountain in Cape Town. So it played to my strengths and I could use the technical downhills to my advantage.

“We experienced all the seasons in one day – the start was a chilly 9 degrees in the mist and wind but it was fun. Towards the end of the race it was sunny and hot as we ran down towards sea-level. I could tell by the way Sara ran that she knew the course well. There were four of us together on the first descent, then I got stuck behind one of the runners and Sara got away, looking very strong and relaxed.

“It was misty at the top and I didn’t see much of the great views,” McCann admitted. “But fortunately I had been to some of the high places in training and had enjoyed them before the race.

“As it was my first race of the year and first for adidas TERREX I felt some pressure to do well, but all that came from my head! There was absolutely no pressure from my team, who were just amazing throughout. They took care of everything and all I had to do was pitch up and run! Having people to get me to the start, to help at the aid stations and much more made all the difference.”

Alonso had a minute lead over Chepkemoi at the first check-point at Roque Nublo after 7.3km, with McCann in third another 30 seconds back. Alonso continued to run strongly, but McCann stayed in contention after moving into second position on the long descent to Tunte at 17km and was just 2 minutes off the pace through that checkpoint.

The gap had grown to 3:30 at 29km, but McCann did well to hold the gap constant to the finish, with Alonso winning in 3:30:39 and McCann coming home less than four minutes behind in second. Another Spanish athlete, Anna Comet Pascua, placed third three minutes back.

McCann will spend a week on the island, enjoying post-race relaxation and recovery before island hopping to Fuerteventura, also part of the Canary Island group, to attend the adidas TERREX team camp the following week.

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