American athlete, Jeff Mogavero, won a last-gasp thriller in the UT100, the top event at the RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town, over the weekend (Saturday 22 November), while South Africans Doug Pickard and Nicolette Griffioen achieved career-best wins in the ‘grand-daddy’ UTCT 100 miler, in a weekend of competitive racing and weather extremes.
After the wind abated on Saturday, the ‘Cape Doctor’ returned with a vengeance overnight, leading to the cancellation of today’s Table Mountain TM35 (Sunday 23 November), with the extreme conditions at the Table Mountain summit deemed unsafe for competition by SANParks and the City’s Disaster Risk team.
A combination of gale-force winds and poor visibility in the ‘Table Cloth’ spread over the top of Table Mountain prompted the decision to halt the race before most of the field had begun the climb up Platteklip Gorge to the Table Top.
Race leaders were close to the summit when they were informed of the decision, with a few opting to continue to run unofficially after handing in their race numbers.
“Conditions on top were quite severe,” title contender, Robbie Rorich, remarked. “The wind was very strong and clouds were dense – visibility was very low. The call was certainly the right one, as many would have struggled in those conditions.
“And I found the last section of the race from Newlands Forest equally tough in the heat and the wind, which seemed to come at us from all directions. But I really enjoyed the morning’s run and ran the whole way with Philani (Sengce).”
Sengce endorsed his words. “When Robbie asked me to join him in doing the route for fun, I didn’t hesitate. It was the best feeling I’ve ever enjoyed in running – we enjoyed every minute of it out there!”
Friday’s strong winds dropped as dramatically as when they regained their strength, providing ideal conditions for the first half of the 100 miler (17h00 Friday start) and the 100 km (04h00 Saturday start). But as the mercury rose, runners struggled to keep their body temperature down.
Competition in the UT100 was as hot as the weather, with the race delivering the second tightest 100km podium in event’s history.
After a ding-dong battle, where the race lead changed three times, Mogavero held off twice winner, Russian Dmitry Mityaev, and Cape Town’s Matt Healy to win by just 31 seconds in 11 hrs 4 min 53 sec.
Mogavero was out on his own for the first 56km to Hout Bay, where a navigational snaffle caused him to lose his lead.
“I ran off the trail on Hout Bay Beach covering an extra 800m or so along the beach,” the former fresh-water ecologist, now a Montana-based professional athlete for the On-Running team, reflected. “By the time I got back on track at the aid station, Dmitry had almost caught me and I thought, ‘there goes my lead’.
Mityaev took over at the helm on the technical climb from East Fort above Chapman’s Peak Drive and his strength over technical terrain saw him open six minutes over the 11km to the next aid station at Constantia Glen.
Mityaev held his lead through the Alphen Trail Aid Station, 24km from home, while Healy had closed the gap and was just two minutes behind Mogavero.
“Dmitry opened quite a gap and I didn’t think I’d see him again,” Mogavero continued. “Then Matt (Healy) caught me on the contour path leading to Newlands Forest and we ran together before he broke away ahead of the final aid station.”
Mogavero’s quick pit-stop saw him regain second position and the American set off in pursuit of Mityaev on one of the toughest sections of the race, with temperatures close to thirty degrees as the runners raced around the face of Table Mountain.
Aided by his ‘space suit’ body-cooling devices, the American closed on Mityaev with every stride and had reduced the four minutes at Newlands Forest to just 30 seconds at Dead Man’s Tree, less than 3km from the finish.
In a helter-skelter dash for the finish, Mogavero raced into the lead on the swift descent and crossed the line in 11:04:53 to win by just 31 seconds.
‘This has been a good year for me, finishing fourth at the Western States Endurance Run in my first attempt,” Mogavero reflected. “After that I was looking around for a race to end my year on a high and Meg (Mackenzie – a leading South African trail athlete and now manager at On Running) supported me, both in my decision to race UTCT and along the course.”
Healy finished strongly in third at the pinnacle of his racing career, which has included several top ten finishes in races on many continents.
“I would rate this my most memorable race,” said Healy. “It was like the perfect race – the wind stayed away and everything went well. My planned finishing time was 11 hrs 11 min, which was exactly my time so today, so our strategy was spot-on!”
The 6 min 33 sec separating the top three was just 48 seconds more than that of the top trio in 2022, when Mityaev dead-heated with Germany’s Hannes Namberger, and American Drew Holman finished just over five minutes back in third.
One of the performances of the weekend was the superb victory in the UT100 by Nepalese athlete, Sunmaya Budha. Following her sister Ram Maya’s third place in Friday’s 55km, Budha lived up to her reputation as one of the world’s finest ultra-trail athletes, racing to 8th position overall in a world-class field.
Budha’s 12:25:55 was over an hour ahead of second-placed Russian athlete, Antonina Iushina, who was runner-up for the second year in succession.
Budha’s is an extraordinary story of surviving desperate malnutrition as a child living in poverty and escaping home to avoid a pre-arranged marriage as a teenager. Budha stumbled on trail running almost by chance and discovered a rare talent, which took her to second place in the 82km World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Spain in September this year.
When asked by top South African trail-athlete turned race commentator, Toni McCann, on how she felt at the end of her race, Budha was lost for words. “Oh my word, this was so tough – much harder than the World Championship course!”
Pickard and Griffioen enjoyed exceptional races in the UTCT100 Mile, which spanned most of the Peninsula Mountain Chain, both achieving ‘best of career’ results in stellar performances.
Griffioen completed a remarkable feat of winning four 100-mile races in a calendar year, achieving record times on three of the four occasions (George MUT in May, Mac Mac 100 miler in July and UTCT in November). She missed her own record time by just five minutes in her fourth win at Ultra-trail Drakensberg in April.
As far as can be determined, only American Jeff ‘ Speedgoat’ Melzer has won more 100 milers in a single year – six during 2006.
Griffioen, who confided she went into the race ‘with almost no training and struggling with a hamstring tear’, was in a class of her own, racing clear from the start and finishing 6th overall in a competitive field in 24:40:58 and two hours ahead of second-placed Free State athlete, Simone Malan. Last year’s winner, Kerry-Ann Marshall, finished third.
Griffioen’s time is one hour thirty-one minutes faster than her winning time in 2023 and impressively 15 minutes inside top American ultra-athlete Hilary Allen’s 2022 previous race record.
Thirty-nine-year-old KZN farmer, Pickard, has had a frustrating year with injuries, but his body responded perfectly to his minimal racing schedule. He was able to turn the tables on twice winner, Russian Aleksei Tolstenko, who finished two hours ahead of Pickard in 2023.
This time Pickard ran more than two hours faster than two years ago and 51 minutes clear of an exhausted Tolstenko, following an intense dual with the Russian athlete during the night hours.
Pickard had taken the lead up Platteklip Gorge, 20km into the race, and stayed in front until Tolstenko caught him after 60km, shortly before the Silvermine Aid Station, around 1am.
The two dualled under the stars with the lead changing hands several times until Pickard appeared to draw strength from the rising sun, taking the lead for the final time on the approach to Scarborough. Pickard was ten minutes ahead through Kommetjie (105km) and fifteen through Noordhoek (114km) and although Pickard had to dig deep through some of the most difficult passages, the race was over as a contest as he raced to a memorable victory.
The excitement was not over, however, as Zimbabwe-born Johannesburg athlete, Admire Muzopambwa, had moved through the field and was running strongly in third place, threatening to catch Tolstenko before the finish.
In the end, just 52 seconds separated the athletes, with Muzopambwa achieving an excellent third position, well ahead of Mark Winter and Anele Bans in 4th and 5th respectively.
Kenya’s Isaiah Kiriago, brother to gold-medallist in the mountain classic at this year’s World Championships, Philemon Kiriago, proved too strong for the rest of the pack in the Explorer 23km, run yesterday morning, winning in 2:00:09, ten minutes clear of Zimbabwe-born Collin Kanyimo. Siboniso Soldaka was third.
Groote Schuur Hospital doctor and recent winner of the Old Fisherman’s Trail Challenge, Ebeth Marais, held off two French athletes to win the women’s race in 2:24:38, with Marie Nivet and Isabelle Lamy completing the podium.
Results
Ultra-trail Cape Town UTCT 100miler
Men
1 Douglas Pickard (RSA) 21:49:11; 2 Aleksei Tolstenko (Russia) 22:40:48; 3 Admire Muzopambwa (Zimb) 22:41:40; 4 Mark Winter (RSA) 23:49:52; 5 Anele Bans (RSA) 24:35:48; 6 Zacchary Herbst (Mauritius) 25:10:23; 7 Antione Clement (France) 26:14:09; 8 Pierre Jordaan (RSA) 26:34:18; 9 Aleksei Shakhturov (Russia) 27:17:29; 10 Ben Hoseus (USA) 27:38:03
Women
1 Nicolette Griffioen (RSA) 24:40:58; 2 Simone Malan (RSA) 26:39:35; 3 Kerry-Ann Marshall (RSA) 27:26:30; 4 Nichole Abma (Canada) 29:56:43; 5 Sveta Becker (RSA) 29:58:55; 6 Kaori Niewa (Japan) 33:28:04; 7 Lenka Polackova (Slovakia) 34:32:36; 8 Lisette Lombard (RSA) 36:03:08; 9 Leigh de Becker (RSA) 36:08:26; 10 Anne Foley (RSA) 38:08:44
Ultra-trail UT100
Men
1 Jeff Mogavero (USA) 11:04:53; 2 Dmitry Mityaev (Russia) 11:05:24; 3 Matthew Healy (RSA) 11:11:26; 4 Joaquin Lopez (Ecuador) 11:46:53; 5 Grant Barnette (USA) 12:10:48; 6 Augustin Saurel (Reunion) 12:22:47; 7 Lodewijk Vriens (Ned) 12:22:50; 8 Kok Wai Tse (Hong Kong, China) 12:30:03; 9 Edson Kumwamba (Malawi) 12:32:32; 10 Marc Bernades (Spain) 12:35:08
Women
1 Sunmaya Budha (Nepal) 12:25:55; 2 Antonina Lushina (Russia) 13:33:31; 3 Tara Fraga (USA) 13:47:04; 4 Alyssa Clark (USA) 14:03:11; 5 Sarah Humble (USA) 14:46:08; 6 Emilie Mann (Canada) 14:59:37; 7 Julika Pahl (Namibia) 15:59:07; 8 Tina Muir (GB) 16:11:11; 9 Julia Hunter (RSA) 16:39:49; 10 Pia Scharein (RSA) 17:15:50
Peninsula Traverse 55km
Men
1 Johannes Wingenfeld (Germany) 5:13:26; 2 Robbie Simpson (Scotland) 5:20:35; 3 Charles Hamilton (Australia) 5:33:38; 4 James Miller (RSA) 5:47:11; 5 Kane Reilly (RSA) 5:57:52; 6 Miguel Heras (Spain) 6:05:38; 7 Mvuyisi Gcogco (RSA) 6:09:29; 8 Alex Zono (RSA) 6:14:35; 9 John April (RSA) 6:16:28; 10 Konstantinos Paradeisopoulos (Greece) 6:21:13
Women
1 Rebecca Kohne (RSA) 6:11:44; 2 Oliva Dubern (France) 6:16:59; 3 Ram Maya Budha (Nepal) 6:21:28; 4 Rebecca Watney (RSA) 6:44:22; 5 Nadia Booyens (RSA) 7:07:04; 6 Beatriz Parron Alvarez (Spain) 7:08:40; 7 Kim Schreiber (Germany) 7:11:42; 8 Bianca Tarboton (RSA) 7:11:43; 9 AndreaOsterloh (RSA) 7:27:30; Jaime Ferara (RSA) 7:47:24
Explorer EX23
Men
1 Isaiah Kiriago (Kenya) 2:00:09; 2 Collin Kanyimo (Zimb) 2:10:59; 3 Siboniso Soldaka (RSA) 2:11:23; 4 David Long (RSA) 2:12:04; 5 Johardt van Heerden (RSA) 2:16:23; 6 Joshua Blackshaw (RSA) 2:19:04; 7 Mthobisi Ntanzi (RSA) 2:32:48; 8 Fabio Reverdito (Italy) 2:35:30; 9 Nkululeko Khumalo (RSA) 2:40:38; 10 Simphiwe Mnguni (RSA) 2:43:02
Women
1 Ebeth Marais (RSA) 2:24:38; 2 Marie Nivet (France) 2:28:32; 3 Isabelle Lamy (France) 2:30:03; 4 Samantha Pringle (RSA) 2:35:42; 5 Marie-Tinka Olivier (RSA) 2:36:46; 6 Nora Serres (Norway) 2:51:08; 7 Lauren Mallett (RSA) 2:57:59; 8 Leane Van Zyl (RSA) 3:04:08; 9 Eugenie Lombard (RSA) 3:06:31; 10 Julie-Anne Leach (RSA) 3:08:08
Kickstarter 16km
Men
1 Mhlengi Chili (RSA) 1:22:54; 2 Simon Goldsborough (RSA) 1:24:22; 3 Sbahle Ndlovu (RSA) 1:27:21; 4 Ruben Hanekom (RSA) 1:27:55; 5 Ludovic Ducrotoy (France) 1:29:53
Women
1 Karin Hahn (Germany) 1:31:58 (record); 2 Lisa Geffen (RSA) 1:35:09; 3 Nina Andreassen (Norway) 1:37:00; 4 Linde van der Burgh (RSA) 1:38:59; 5 Ziya Wessels (RSA) 1:41:16
