Cape Town brings world trail running crown to Africa in 2027

From 6 to 10 October 2027, Cape Town will host the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships, the first time the event has ever been staged in Africa. It is also the first world championship in an athletics discipline held in South Africa since 1993. More than three decades have passed. For the country’s sporting public, that gap makes the occasion a rare moment of international visibility, and for one week next October the city will be a stage for global sport.

The championships, hosted by Golazo South Africa, Athletics South Africa and Western Province Athletics, will bring together the world’s best elite mountain and trail runners, with individual and team world titles contested across the sport’s premier disciplines: uphill, classic, classic U20, short trail and long trail. Races will run against the backdrop of Table Mountain, giving spectators and participants a showcase of natural landscapes many South Africans know as part of their everyday environment.

Access for ordinary runners is built into the plan. Alongside the elite competition, organisers are developing a programme of mass participation events that will allow more than 2000 amateur runners from South Africa and around the world to compete on selected championship terrain and experience the championship atmosphere. Further details will be announced in due course. For sports enthusiasts, organisers describe it as a once-in-a-lifetime chance to run the same ground as the world’s best.

World Athletics President Sebastian Coe framed the milestone in terms of the sport’s widening reach. “Mountain and trail running is experiencing a real boom, and the fourth staging of the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships is another cause for celebration,” he said. “As the first World Mountain and Trail Running Championships to be hosted in Africa, this is an important milestone for our sport and one for which excitement continues to build now the event is only one year away.” He added that the championships would bring together elite athletes and mass participation runners for a festival of off-road running.

Meanwhile, the event’s governing partners, Sarah Rowell, Nadeem Khan and Janet Ng, presidents respectively of the World Mountain Running Association, the International Association of Ultrarunners and the International Trail Running Association, said member federations are planning their trials and athletes and coaches their training for what they called stunning and competitive races. They noted they had been impressed by the professionalism of the local organising committee and continue to work closely with it toward a successful event in October 2027.

For Athletics South Africa, the duty now is preparation at home. Acting CEO Terrence Magogodela said the organisation is proud to be part of a historic moment as it prepares to welcome the world. He pointed to Cape Town 2027 as an opportunity to showcase South Africa’s athletes, landscapes and hospitality, while creating a lasting legacy for mountain and trail running across the country and the continent. Through a national championship and selection pathway, he said, the federation is committed to ensuring Team South Africa is ready to compete with the world’s best when the championships arrive next October.

South African international trail runner Toni McCann spoke to what the event could mean for the next generation. “I am so proud that Cape Town will host Africa’s first World Mountain and Trail Running Championships,” she said, welcoming the world’s best athletes to experience the energy of the city, its people, its passionate trail and running community, and the magical beauty of its rugged trails. Beyond that, she said, the event has the power to make a lasting impact on a new generation of South African runners who dream of one day wearing the green and gold.

Organisers say the championships aim to leave a lasting legacy through athlete development, greater participation and international exposure, growing the sport across the continent and introducing more runners to its mountain and trail destinations. As the countdown enters its final year, Cape Town 2027 is positioned as more than a championship: a chance to showcase Africa to the world and to open the sport’s next chapter to future generations of athletes. Whether those 2000 amateur runners and the young runners McCann imagines will carry the sport forward is the question the next twelve months will begin to answer.