South African star Toni McCann in two minds on UTMB – CCC – OCC hat-trick bid

Maybe the question came a little bit too soon after her first ever 100km race but there were mixed messages from South African star Toni McCann as to whether she will look to add a UTMB title to her CCC and OCC ones.

McCann took the 55km OCC 12 months ago and made the step up to almost double the distance look relatively easy as she ran away from her female rivals at CCC last week.

So could she now tackle the 100-mile UTMB and become the first woman to complete the set? Ruth Croft went close at UTMB this year when second to Katie Schide but it would be an historic feat.

Mental challenge of double the distance

McCann had one tricky spell between Champex and Trient before claiming CCC victory in 11 hours, 57 minutes and 59 seconds, followed by Poland’s Martyna Mlynarczyk in 12:11:12 and Germany’s Rosanna Buchauer in 12:16:55.

And speaking afterwards about the step up in distance, McCann said: “The CCC is my first ever 100K. I am used to shorter distances and didn’t know how I would handle this new distance.

“My longest race before this was the 55ks of OCC last year. So coming into Champex this year knowing I had to do another 50km was really hard mentally and I was struggling with that.

Having a ‘think about it’

“But seeing my crew, my family and my team there gave me the strength to keep going and lifted my spirits. I want to thank them for their unwavering support, it made a huge, huge difference.

“And the section after that actually felt great.”

Having won the OCC in 2023, and now the CCC in 2024, the natural question was whether she plans to tackle the UTMB next year and the initial response was: “Absolutely not!”

Followed by: “I’d like a couple more 100ks under my belt before I think about it.”