Jarryd Dunn

Another spectacular evening of running for the Spur Cape Summer Trail Series® 2017 as runners chased down the sunset through the howling winds, otherwise considered a gentle breeze by all local Cape Tonians, on Wednesday night at Meerendal Wine Estate.

It was a first for the Spur Trail Series® at this new venue and proved to be hit for all who crossed the finish line. The view from the start/finish was a sight to remember as the runners wound their way up the beautifully cut switchback mountain bike trails, with Table Mountain and Lions Head lit up in the backdrop.

Racing kicked off at 19:30 for the long course, with all the racing snakes and serious faces lined up, up front. Current series leader and the hot favourite for podium step number one, was missing from the starting line, meaning there was a first place up for grabs.

Michael Davidson saw the gap and seized the opportunity for his first race of the series, flying through this fast paced course in a time of 45:48. After just missing the podium having to settle for 4th for two races in a row, Jarryd Dunn finally got his moment in the lime light claiming 2^nd place for the evening, and coming in hot on his heels, finishing in 3^rd place was Emmanuel Dlamini.

In the ladies race Sophie Cope kicked it up a gear, after two 3^rd places in a row, she was hungry to move up in the ranks and sped across the line in first place in a time of 56:39. Another series favourite, Emily Yeo, came flying over in second place and taking the final spot on the ladies overall podium was Julie Huckle.

In the mens short course challenge, it was almost an identical podium as the first two races, as Dino Adams kept his winning streak going claiming his hat-trick win in an impressive time of 28:21. Making sure Dino had to run hard for his win, coming in right behind him to take his third 2^nd place was Evan Fortuin. And wrapping up the men’s podium and newbie to this series’ podium was Gershon Aziza a mere 8 seconds behind Evan.

An all new line up for the woman’s short course Challenge overall podium. First to cross the finish line was Natalie Smit, who whipped around this course in a time of 37:33. Second place went to Jade Bremmer, a junior, she finished in a time of 39:31. And winning the final sprint off across the finish line to claim the 3^rd spot on the podium was Lollos Rodseth.

Watching all the headlights floating in the sky around the damn at the finish was such a great sight to see, even better seeing all the lit up grins crossing the finish line. Impressive running from all runners who took part. This surely was a night run to remember, and one to diarize for next year.

Click here to relive the moment and view some of the awesome photos from race night. (Or to suffer from a small case of FOMO)

For the rest of the results click here.

A big thank you and shout out to all Sponsors and Partners who help make these races that much more exciting; Spur Steak Ranches, BOS Sport, Raidlight, Steenberg Vineyards and WWF run for nature.

This past Sunday saw the trail running calendar kick off with the first race of the Spur Cape Summer Trail Series® at Lebanon Forest in Elgin. After taking a beating from the wild fires last year, it was awesome to have all the fun single tracks back in action. The Cape decided to play along as well and dish out some delicious weather for runners to play in out on the trails.

First light came peeking out at 5:30am as runners started rolling in for registration and number collection. By 6:30am there was an exciting buzz in the air from all the runners getting ready to dust off those holiday legs and kick up some dirt. To add to the buzz was Wildrunner’s own bag of exciting news for 2017. First was the fact that Spur Trail Series® and Wildrunner turns 10 years young this year.

Then the addition of Raidlight as new apparel sponsor, this means a whole lot of awesome spot prizes, podium prizes up for grabs.

On that podium note, let’s get onto the racing for the day. In the long course Championship, there was a fast competitive field lined up on the start line. All of them ready to take on the course record set by the legend himself, Bernie Rukadza in 2015, a smashing time of 53:43.

All though flying over the finish line at a ridiculous pace, no one could come close to Bernie’s time. Taking the win on the day was Raydon Balie, in a time of 54:49, almost a minute behind him in second was Emmanuel Dlamini, taking the final step on the podium, just sneaking in in front of Jarryd Dunn, was Vincent Viet in a time of 55:44.

In the ladies long course Championship race, taking top honours for Race 1 was local road running star Ashleigh Simonis, in a time of 1:03:37. Shortly after her was Swiss track running champion, Fiammetta Troxler, and wrapping up the ladies podium was Sophie Cope in a time of 01:10:21.

The short course men’s challenge race saw Dino Adams smash Riaan Wildskut’s 2014 short course record by almost a minute, racing across the line in a time of 22:45. Hot on Dino’s heels, and also breaking the record was Evan Fortuin, who came in only 2 seconds behind Dino. And claiming 3rd place was Llewellyn Jacobs. Some ridiculously fast running put on out there in the short course.

In the ladies Challenge race, Liezl du Plooy came sprinting across the line in first place, a long way ahead from runners up Josie McCann and Chanel Hannah. These two had a great battle out on course, and in the end it was Josie who snuck in 5 seconds ahead of Chanel in a time of 32:32 to take second place.

Amazing running by all out there on Sunday. Lebanon never ceases to hand a fantastic dose of good dirt to go and play on.

If you acted crazy, or stopped to strike a pose at the Steenberg Camera Trap, go check out the album here on facebook to see if you’ve been snapped? If we missed you this Sunday, be sure to keep an eye out at the next race for those Steenberg Gates and you could be the next lucky winners who also stand a chance at winning the grand prize. For more details on the competition click here.

A big shout out and thank you to all our sponsors and partners; Spur Steak Ranches, Raidlight, BOS Sport, Steenberg Vineyards and WWF.

Check out your race results here and some the race photos here.