History was made at the 18th edition of the Otter TERREX Trail this past weekend, as South African runners dominated the podiums, with Bianca Tarboton and Robbie Rorich claiming the women’s and men’s titles.

Tarboton secured a record-extending fifth victory in six years…

Tarboton secured a record-extending fifth victory in six years, leading from the start and steadily building her advantage over the chasing pack to win the marathon-length race in 4:55:24 – almost 17 minutes clear of runner-up Mila Geldenhuys. Her latest triumph adds to her 2021 win and four consecutive victories from 2023 to 2026.

In the men’s race, patience and perseverance finally paid off for Rorich, who drew on his renowned technical skills and experience from seven previous Otter outings to overtake debutant Philani Sengce in the final kilometres. Rorich crossed the line in 4:08:11 to claim his first Otter victory, after finishing runner-up in 2025 and third in 2017 and 2022.

With South Africans filling the top spots across both races, this year’s Otter was a strong showcase of homegrown trail-running talent. 

Rightly Considered the Grail of Trail
Known as the Grail of Trail, Otter offers runners the only chance each year to run the iconic Otter Trail on the Tsitsikamma Coast in the Southern Cape. Usually, it is strictly reserved for hikers, who cover the distance in five days with overnight stops.

The technical nature of the trail makes this course one of the hardest in the country to race on, with gnarly coastline pathways, narrow forest single tracks, river crossings, fields of rocks and boulders, gruelling climbs that total 2 600m of elevation gain, including three climbs that rise more than 100m each, and nearly 7 000 ascending stairs!

This year the race was run from Nature’s Valley to Storms River – the reverse direction known as the Retto (Otter in reverse), which alternates every second year with the original Classic direction. Cool, misty and overcast conditions that brought light rain later in the day provided ideal racing conditions, but the muddy condition of the trails following recent rains in the area did slow the runners down somewhat.

Tarboton Dominates Women’s Race
With four wins already to her name as well as two runner-up finishes in her seven previous Otters, Bianca Tarboton lined up as firm favourite for this year’s race, even if she did try to downplay her form. She said before the time, “I’ve been struggling this whole year with my racing, but with Otter being my favourite trail, I’m hoping I will be able to find that extra gear.”

That proved to be the case, as she dominated the women’s race from start to finish. By the time she reached the Bloukrans crossing, she was already seven minutes 34 seconds ahead of second-placed Mila Geldenhuys, with Switzerland’s Julika Pahl lying third, followed by Otter debutant Nadia Booyens. That lead had nearly doubled to 14:07 by the time Tarboton reached the Oakhurst checkpoint (22.2km), and she just kept pulling away, in spite of the muddy conditions, going on to win the race in 4:55:22.

“I had to work really hard to stay in it and to keep pushing, so it definitely was not an easy day for me. I slipped a lot of times, but that’s Otter… You can have really great days, and you can have days that don’t quite go your way, so today was a different experience, and it’s always such a privilege to race on this trail,” says Tarboton. “Of course, it’s special every time I get to be on the podium here, but it’s difficult to compare my wins, because each one feels so different, but they’re all special!”

Geldenhuys was second home in 5:14:12, in her second Otter run. (She finished eighth in her debut in 2023.) She had a steady run, holding down second place throughout the race and slowly stretching her lead over the third-placed runner as the day went on. The top three were rounded off by Booyens, who crossed the line in 5:16:05. She was in fourth place for much of the race, but ran herself into the podium positions in the second half of the race, having said before the race that she was feeling no pressure due to being an unknown “underdog” in the Otter.

Fourth place went to Lijan Burger in 5:19:29. Having finished second in 2023 and sixth in 2022, she used her previous Otter experience to start slightly more conservatively, sitting just inside the top 10 in the early stages and then steadily pushing up through the field to climb into the prize money. She was followed home by Pahl, who had held down third position for the first half of the race, but had to settle for fifth place in 5:27:18. In her previous Otter runs, the Swiss trail star finished second in 2021 and fourth in 2019.

Sting in the Tail in Men’s Race
Remaketse Lekaka set the pace in the opening stages of the men’s race, arriving at the Bloukrans River crossing 13 seconds ahead of Jacques Buys, with Kane Reilly, Jacques Du Plessis, Frenchman Bastien Perez and Robbie Rorich all within a minute of the leader. At that stage, 12km into the race, the winner of the Prologue, Kenyan debutant Simon Ngumbau was lying seventh, and Philani Sengce was eighth, around a minute and a half off the pace.

Reilly took the lead in the next section, arriving at the Oakhurst checkpoint (22.2km) a few seconds ahead of Buys, with Lekaka and Du Plessis a further 10 seconds back. Rorich and Sengce were just over a minute behind the leader, with Perez and Ngumbau slowly dropping down the order. By the Scott checkpoint (29.7km), Sengce was a few seconds ahead of Reilly, with Du Plessis another seven seconds adrift, but Rorich was beginning to close them all down, now just 30 seconds behind the leader.

Sengce, Reilly and Rorich all took turns to lead the race in the final 10km, but it was Sengce in the lead at the final checkpoint at the Waterfall (39.4km), with Rorich 37 seconds adrift, whereas Reilly had dropped nearly two and a half minutes back, but it was here that Rorich put both his technical skills and experience of seven previous Otters to full use – and enjoyed a bit of luck as well.

“The last ten kays were wild, and we all took turns leading the race. First it was Kane, then Philani, then me…but after Philani and I passed the hut together, he put in a big charge and opened the gap, so the rocks helped me to catch up again. But I only passed Philani because he got a bit lost,” recounts Rorich.

“The trail goes up a double staircase, and we both went right, but I realised that was wrong and went left. Next thing I knew, I was up top, and Philani was below me, still climbing. He stopped because he obviously didn’t know what to do, and I shouted at him to carry on running, but that was it; I was now ahead of him. I don’t know if I would have caught him if he didn’t take that wrong turn.”

With Rorich first over the line in 4:08:11, Sengce was second home in 4:09:16. In spite of the disappointing way he lost the lead so near the finish, Sengce remained upbeat about his first Otter experience. “I dreamed last night of a top five finish, and here I have managed to get top three!” he says with a big smile.

“I’ve done a lot of races, but this one is crazy. The whole race, from the start, from kilometre one, a lot of things happened, so I picked up a lot of experience today, and in the coming years, I believe I can break the course record, or the South African record. Today I learnt a lot of things, which I will use when I come back,” he adds.

Reilly claimed third in 4:12:00, adding an incredible 10th podium finish in his 14th Otter. He has now finished runner-up six times and third a total of four times, with a fourth place and two fifth-place finishes as well. While a win at Otter still eludes him, his record is unmatched by any other runner in Otter history. Fourth place went to Du Plessis (4:16:07), improving on his sixth place in 2024, and Buys took fifth place in 4:21:01. He was runner-up in 2024, as well as fourth in 2021 and fifth in 2025.

Rich Rewards for Top Five
Thanks to the generous support of presenting sponsor EasyEquities, the Otter offers one of the most significant prize purses for trail running in Africa, structured deliberately to include an investment component, with part of the prize money placed into an EasyEquities account for each winning athlete.

“We want athletes to receive immediate reward, but also to experience the idea of longer-term financial growth, which is core to who we are,” says EasyEquities’ Chief Enablement Officer, Carel Nolte. “We don’t want to just hand over a cheque and disappear. At EasyEquities, we invest in companies, but we also invest in people. Excellence deserves recognition, and athletes need more than applause.”

As the first man and woman across the finish line, Rorich and Tarboton will each receive R100 000 in prize money, while second-placed Sengce and Geldenhuys have earned themselves R50 000 each. The prize money for third to fifth is R25 000, R12 000 and R10 000 respectively.

Treasured Memories Made
By the time the nine-hour bell was rung, a total of 241 runners had made it home as official Race finishers, with Danielle Lubbe the last runner home. This brought to a close another drama-filled edition of the Grail of Trail, leaving runners, spectators, sponsors and crew with another treasure trove of priceless trail running memories on the Tsitsikamma coastline.

Vital to the success of the event was the large support crew working all along the route, and Race Director Nina Weiss says they all deserve a huge note of thanks for their hard work. “We had 118 crew here this week to support the runners, with a ratio of around one crew member for every three runners, showing how much goes into this event. We also do everything to leave the trail better for us having participated here, which has always been a core aim of the event.”

2026 RACE RESULTS
All athletes are South African except where another nationality is listed.

Men’s Race
1 Robbie Rorich 4:08:11 Open
2 Philani Sengce 4:09:16 Open
3 Kane Reilly 4:12:00 Open
4 Jacques Du Plessis 4:16:07 Open
5 Jacques Buys 4:21:01 Open
6 Remaketse Lekaka 4:28:37 Open
7 Kelton Miller 4:53:08 Open
8 Brendan Lombard 4:54:39 Open
9 Andreas van Heerden 4:54:39 Open
10 Sinovuyo Ngcobo 4:57:26 Open

Women’s Race
1 Bianca Tarboton 4:55:22 Open
2 Mila Geldenhuys 5:14:12 Open
3 Nadia Booyens 5:16:05 Open
4 Lijan Burger 5:19:29 Open
5 Julika Pahl (Switzerland) 5:27:18 Open
6 Julia Hunter 5:29:43 40-49
7 Emilie Vidal 5:33:38 Open
8 Samantha Kruger 5:41:43 Open
9 Samantha Pringle 5:43:06 Open
10 Maryke van Zyl 5:44:14 Open

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