Bernard Rukadza and Katya Soggot put in dominant performances to claim the Marloth Mountain Challenge 55km trail race and with that, the Mountain Challenge Series titles.
The race took place on Saturday, 26 September, starting and finishing at the Drostdy Museum in Swellendam and took runners across and around the majestic Swellendam Mountains. With 3 494m of vertical climb this is not a race for the faint-hearted but these two didn't really give anyone else a sniff of the title. Rukadza ran at the front of the field with Nicholas Rupanga for most of the race, before pulling away at 32km to beat Rupanga by 11minutes and make up a six minute difference in the Mountain Challenge Series for the overall title. His winning time was 7:22:38.
Soggot ran at the front of the ladies field throughout, with an ever-increasing lead and eventually crossed the finish line in 8:25:23, more than 40 minutes ahead of her closest competitor and over an hour quicker than the 2014 record.
MMC Lite Relay
The MMC Lite Relay also made for some exciting racing as the BHP Runners, consisting of Pieter Wessels, Burger Symington and Heinrich Boock managed to beat Brotherglen (Nick Colli, Christopher Parker and Nikolai von Stackelberg) by just under three minutes. They came home in 8:14:01, while the first mixed team, TAH on Hills followed in 8:33:57. The first ladies team, Mindful Runners, was home in 10:38:11.
With comments from hardy trail runners after the race including words such as “monstrous” and trail hard-man, Dion Middelkoop saying it was one of the toughest races he’s ever done, it is possible that the Marloth Mountain Challenge could be the hardest trail race in South Africa and we take our hats off to everyone who took on the challenge this year. Will you be up to it next year?
A big thank you to all the Hamnet mountain teams who ensured the runners’ safety on the mountain as well as our great sponsors and supporters, BOS Ice Tea, Protea Hotels, Graham Beck Wines and Swellendam Tourism.