And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how you klap the @Salomon_SA @ottertrailrun! The long-expected Race Day rolled up, with rain and threatening clouds lifting just after dawn to set the scene on 42km of #grailoftrail perfection.

The #GardenRoute NP is postcard beautiful on most given days, and the 220-plus #Otter trail runners were raring to be let loose along the testing, rooty, muddy and rocky route from #NaturesValley to #StormsRiverMouth.

Never before have I seen so many #trailrun legend in one field, with the global #Top20 athletes from France, Spain, America, New Zealand and the global #goldentrailseriescountries front and centre stage. All eyes were on greats like @kilianjornet and @marc_lauenstein, but a blistering performance from the young Polish trail star @Bartlomiej Przedwojewski obliterated the competition as he led the field from the early stages.

Brave running from the SA contingent saw Robert Rorich, Rory Scheffer and Christiaan Greyling (Men) and Meg Levinson (Women) sneaking into the respective #Top10 positions. They all ran out of their skins, but the upset of the day came from the 24-yr old (and relatively unknown) Toni McCann from Cape Town, who ran a blinder of a race to take the 3rd position in an incredibly strong Women’s Field.

Overall spoils went to two athletes of near-inhuman capabilities, with Przedwojewski from #Poland smashing the Men’s record, while Holly Page from the UK walked away with the Women’s spoils. Records were utterly shattered, with the fastest ever human navigation of the #OtterTrail going down in 3hrs 40min. Brain. Cannot. Compute …

Huge kudos must go to the superb @Magnetic_South team for truly world-class organisation, and to main sponsors @Salomon_SA and @LiveU for supporting what indisputably rates as an African #trailrunning event without equal.

All images shot on @SonyAlpha #SONYA7RIII

Click here to view the pics