OTTER Trail Record Shattered.

Press Release / 06.10.2010

The OTTER African Trail Run, presented by global outdoor apparel manufacturer HI-TEC, was presented for only the second time within the scenic Garden Route National Park. This unique and exhilarating race, run in a single day along the 5-day Otter Hiking Route, showcases the natural splendour of one of South Africa’s favourite (and newest) national parks.

Few people are afforded the privilege of doing ‘The Otter’ in one day, and it is certainly not within everyone’s physical ability to do so.

This years saw 160 athletes arrive at Storms River Mouth to do exactly this: run the Otter Trail, and do so within the maximum allowed time of 10 hours. This was to be the second running of ‘The Otter’, an event made possible only after a historic agreement was signed between organisers Magnetic South and SANparks management.

The five-day hiking trail, stretching over a distance of 42km, was last year blitzed by KZN runner Ian-Don Wauchope in 4hrs 59min, making him the first athlete to officially break the mythical five hour barrier. This year, with the event run twice 300 eager endurance runners were given the opportunity to emulate Wauchope’s ‘impossible feat’.

All sub-five hours competitors have their names engraved on the ‘Otter Grail’, a trophy especially designed for the event, and out of all the runners, the one most eager to make this a reality was John Collins.

As a Knysna and Sedgefield local, he has literally grown up running wild along the Garden Route coastline.

The concept of the OTTER African Trail Run was the collective brainchild of brothers John and Mark Collins, and they are also key partners in the successful event organising company, Magnetic South, responsible for staging ‘The Otter’. Together with HI-TEC and Plettenberg Bay Tourism, they forged a partnership with SANparks, thus making the impossible dream of ‘running a 42km off-road marathon along an unspoilt wilderness coastline’ a reality.