World-class Simpson and Tarboton race to victories at the ‘Otter’

Scottish trail athlete, Robbie Simpson, and his South African adidas TERREX teammate, Bianca Tarboton, were crowned champions at the Otter African Trail Run in Nature’s Valley today (Saturday 7 October) in the wettest edition of the race’s 14-year history.

The ‘Otter’, presented by Easy Equities, lived up to its reputation of being the most prestigious trail marathon on the continent, with this year’s race enjoying exceptional depth of quality. No fewer than 18 athletes crossed the floating raft finish line on the Grootrivier Lagoon in under five hours, the most ever with the exception of 2018 (when 14 internationals in the final of the Golden Trail World Series boosted the tally to 27).

The threatened downpour never materialised, but the overnight rain and persistent drizzle throughout the race turned the course into a quagmire in places. Seasoned campaigners estimated that the conditions added 5-15 minutes to the times and kept the sponsor’s R100 000 record incentives safe.

The fact that the world-class Simpson’s winning time of 4:12:36 was 13 minutes outside Swiss athlete Marc Lauenstein’s record and that the much-improved Tarboton was over 6 minutes outside her own record set in 2021 are clear indications of the tough nature of the course.

“The Otter really has a bit of everything – running on the shoreline, on the rocks, over boulders as well as over tree roots in the forest,” said Simpson. “That makes it unique – and it’s really tough!

“It was a real adventure for me – I really liked the forest as it felt like running through the jungle with today’s rain and the river crossings are unlike anything I’ve ever done in a race before. It was tough!”

Tarboton concurred. “It was a very tough day and the conditions were brutal – definitely tougher than in previous years. But I felt very strong, like I had a lot to give for the first half and felt I paced myself really well. But in the second half I started cramping and didn’t have the endurance to push through.”

Apart from the high quality of the field, the race delivered one of the most exciting contests in years, with the outcome in doubt till the last.

Robbie Rorich used his technical skills to scorch into a sizeable lead over the wet rocks in the early stages of the race, leaving the rest of the field trailing in his wake. Simpson was slower over the rocks and had to work hard to move up the field on a narrow single track before catching top South Africans, defending champion, Johardt van Heerden, and Kane Reilly.

“I finally I joined Johardt and Kane and ran with them before I decided to overtake them,” Simpson related. “I then ran with Kane for some time but we had totally different rhythms. Sometimes I would overtake him then he wanted to overtake me. In the end around 14km, I thought I just had to break away and run my own race.”

Rorich’s lead had shrunk to 1 min 50 sec over Simpson through the haflway point at Oakhurst and not long after, the Scot found himself leading the Otter. Reilly and Van Heerden were still in the race, less than two minutes behind at halfway.

The Bloukrans River crossing loomed as the next significant obstacle.  Often little more than ankle deep at the crossing, this year the Bloukrans lived up to its reputation. A combination of a higher than normal  river flow and a big sea swell resulted in athletes spending several minutes on the crossing.

“I kept getting smashed by the big waves, so it took a while to cross – a lot longer than I thought it would,” said Tarboton. “I had to use far more energy there than I’d planned. The river crossings were all quite tough and added a lot of time to the race.”

Simpson, meanwhile, had built up what was looking like a winning lead, with Reilly in second place four minutes back and Van Heerden 10 seconds behind him, but struggled after the crossing. “Coming out of all the rivers, my legs felt like jelly so I had to go slowly for a bit after each crossing,” said Simpson.

Van Heerden overtook Reilly through the Bloukrans before setting off at pace after the leader and 6km later, at Andre Hut, the gap had been halved. Reilly was also in the mix, just under a minute back of Van Heerden. 

But Van Heerden was left to rue the speed of his attack on Simpson and it was Reilly, rather than Van Heerden, who proved Simpson’s strongest rival. “I think I burned my candles too brightly after the Bloukrans,” Van Heerden admitted. “And my legs had nothing left when Kane came past me.”

With the mud limiting Simpson’s speed on the relatively flat cliff-top section approaching Nature’s Valley, the race was still undecided, as Reilly closed steadily on his rival. A pulsating finish was in the offing, but in the end Simpson had too much class and experience to surrender late in the race and he held on to a memorable debut victory.

Reilly finished just 1 min 58 sec back in the second-closest finish in the 14 year history of the Otter, behind the 2020 Retto (run in reverse direction) where Spanish athlete Pere Aurell held off Johardt van Heerden by just 46 seconds.

Van Heerden struggled in the final kilometres but did enough to hold on to the final podium position, crossing the line four minutes back in dramatic fashion, throwing himself off the raft into the lagoon. 

German Marcel ‘Macy Pacy’ Hoeche was the fourth athlete under 4 hrs 30 min, racing home just over five minutes before Rorich edged out fast-finishing former winner, Ryan Sandes. But both the latter were moved down a position, as Christiaan Greyling raced home shortly after, to claim fifth place on nett time due to his starting two minutes behind the lead group.

“I think I enjoyed today’s race more than any other,” Reilly admitted shortly after completing his 11^th Otter. “I felt for the first time I was engaged in a real race where I was relatively strong at the finish. But I must admit that my father would be turning in his grave at the thought of a guy from Nelspruit (Van Heerden) coming past me in the waves at Bloukrans!”

Tarboton again underlined the benefit of being part of the global adidas TERREX team, underlining her class with a convincing victory after little or no race-specific preparation. “I feel like a stronger runner this year,” said Tarboton, “but it was always going to be a bit of a gamble as I only decided to run five days ago and haven’t done a long run for two months. So the endurance wasn’t really there.

“I wasn’t chasing the record – it would have been more of a bonus. I just felt a very strong desire to run Otter this week and to see what might happen!”

Lijan Burger, who was with Tarboton as part of the South African team at the World Mountain and Trail Championships in Austria in June overtook trail-racing newcomer, Robin Cozien, after Oakhurst to take second place in the women’s competition in 5:25:19, with Otter debutant Cozien six minutes later in third.

The KZN-based Cozien is a plant ecologist researcher at the UKZN and spends much of her time carrying heavy equipment in the Drakensberg mountains, giving her additional strength for her trail-racing. New to trail racing and coached by Linda Doke, she won the Mont aux Sources 50km last month and will be an athlete to watch for the future.

For Simpson, the Otter African Trail Run further cemented his affection for racing in South Africa following his win at last year’s Ultra-trail Cape Town 55km and his strong participation in this year’s Two Oceans and Comrades Marathons.

“The South African connection means a lot,” Simpson acknowledged. “South Africa had never been on my radar until TERREX decided to send a team to Ultra-trail Cape Town last year. But I’ve known Bianca (Tarboton) since she joined the TERREX team and she’s now one of my best friends.  She kept on saying I had to come and run here – so that’s why I came.

“I’ve met so many great people as well so I really feel very welcome here. A lot more than at home, for some reason! To me it feels like home here, so that’s why I love coming to South Africa and racing.”

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