With the fourth edition of Ultra-Trail® Drakensberg (UTD) being cancelled due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, organisers thought fast and their UTD Lockdown Edition was a resounding success.

Just over R100,000 was raised for Wildlife ACT and the Southern Lodestar Foundation. The UTD Lockdown Edition took the five different events scheduled for the Drakensberg’s toughest trail running event and divided the distances by 10 to give runners distances to cover in their gardens over the same period had the UTD taken place.

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1200 runners took on the UTD Lockdown Edition in a welcome show of solidarity for the cancelled event, while rallying support for the event’s two benefactors.

Taking on 17.1km was equivalent to the UTD160, while the other events were scaled down to 10.8km, 6.2km, 3.2km and 2.1km. There were also options to run the UTD Lockdown Edition Grand Slam, which converted into 39.5km, while others opted to take on the UTD Unlimited, which was a challenge to see how far you could run from 10am on Friday (May 8) to 7am on Sunday (May 10).

The ultimate prize went to Tobie Reyneke and Debbie O’Mahoney, who completed the longest distance over the event time frame. Reyneke completed 171km in 31 hours and 58 minutes, while O’Mahoney finished 165km in 36 hours.

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