Adnaan Mohamed
By the time dawn cracked open above Table Mountain on Friday, the storm had already done its damage. Cape Town’s city bowl looked like a shaken snow globe – debris scattered, Race Village shuttered, the wind still muttering threats through the pines.
But out on the 2025 RMB Ultra-Trail Cape Town (UTCT) Peninsula Traverse 55km start line, a 22-year-old from George stood still and unbothered, like someone listening to a different frequency entirely.
Rebecca Kohne wasn’t here for the noise. She was here for the mountain.
The thing is, nobody expected much from her, not even her.
This was her first ultra. Her first dance with the 55 km beast. Her first attempt at a distance where mistakes become monsters and pacing becomes gospel. The PT55 is notorious: half coastal storm, half rocky furnace, all attitude.
Kohne just smiled at it.
A Track Kid Walking Into the Lion’s Den
Kohne didn’t grow up on rugged singletrack. She’s a track kid with clean lines, controlled speed, predictable rhythm. She only started trail running in 2022, easing into shorter races, building confidence in the dirt.
Nothing in her résumé said “future 55 km winner.” But UTCT has a habit of pulling truth out of people.
“I had a really nice day today and really enjoyed the course,” she said later, almost too casually for someone who had just shocked one of the world’s biggest trail races.
“I ran pretty conservatively and ran a bit harder towards the end of the race.”
She said it like she’d just ticked off a chilled Sunday jog—not a career-altering breakout.
Running Her Own Race – Literally
What separated her from the rest wasn’t raw power or swagger. It was composure.
She didn’t panic when the wind howled across the ridges. She didn’t force things on the climbs. She didn’t chase the favourites.
She simply stayed in her lane – an ex–track runner building a new one across the mountain.
“No, I didn’t think so,” she admitted when asked if she expected to win. “I was hoping for top five.”
Then she dropped the line that perfectly sums up her day:
“The biggest thing I take away from today is not to count yourself out until the end. I just ran my own race, and I was focusing on how I was feeling. I just solved my problems as I was going through the course, and it turned out to work out for me.”
That’s veteran-level patience. That’s ultra instinct earned, not taught.
A Victory Without Flash – But Full of Fire
Rebecca Kohne did not arrive at UTCT to make noise. But mountains don’t care about hype—they care about honesty.
And Kohne ran with the kind of honest effort that trail running respects: steady, smart, attuned, unshakeable. Her 6:11:44 finish was clean, decisive and quietly devastating to the field.
A first ultra win in her first ultra attempt? That’s the kind of statistic that makes the trail world lean forward.
“For now, I will just enjoy the victory and decide what to do next when I return home,” she said, already being touted as South Africa’s next big thing.
Classic Kohne – calm in a moment when most would combust.
The Trail World Has a New Name to Learn
There are performances that make headlines.
Then there are performances that change trajectories.
This one felt like the latter.
On a morning when the storm was supposed to steal the show, a 22-year-old solved the mountain like it was a riddle she’d been waiting her whole life to answer.
Rebecca Kohne came to UTCT as an unknown. She left as the athlete everyone will be watching when the next trail rises.
2025 UTCT Winners
100 Miler (UTCT 100M)
• Men: Douglas Pickard (RSA) – 21:49:11
2. Aleksei Tolstenko (RSA)
3. Admire Muzopambwa (ZIM)
100 km (UT100 – Men)
• Jeff Mogavero (USA) – 11:04:53
2. Dmitry Mityaev (Neutral)
3. Matthew Healy (RSA)
100 km (UT100 – Women)
• Sunmaya Budha (Nepal) – 12:25:55
2. Antonina Iushina
3. Tara Fraga
55 km Peninsula Traverse (PT55)
• Men: Johannes Wingenfeld (GER) – 5:13:26
• Women: Rebecca Kohne (RSA) – 6:11:44
35 km Table Mountain (TM35)
• Race called off due to windy conditions
23 km Explorer (EX23) & 16 km Kickstarter (KS16)
• Events completed; official results not yet published.
