We’re saddened by the news that British ultra runner and winner of this year’s Western States 100 Tom Evans has pulled out of the upcoming RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town. Evans was mugged whilst on a training run on Table Mountain in Cape Town earlier this week.
Whilst putting in the necessary preparation for the 100 mile ultramarathon he was ambushed by two men and attacked.
“Everything that I had with me was taken,” he posted on Instagram. “I’ve decided that, for me, for my health, it’s best not to race next weekend.”
“Physically my body’s OK, I’m pretty beaten up, I’m incredibly sore today but I’ll be OK, but mentally it’s just trying to get over something like this, doing something that you love, it just seems so unexpected and happened so quickly.”
Evans said he was “incredibly gutted” not to be taking part in the race, but said safety has to come first. He had been due to take part in the Ultra-trail Cape Town event next weekend, taking part in the 100 mile race with 7,516 metres of vertical gain.
Organisers of the Ultra-Trail Cape Town event said they have increased security deployments around the entire route of the race next weekend.
“We are extremely saddened and concerned by what happened to Tom Evans and have reached out to him to offer our support and access to counselling,” the statement read. “We were excited to have him race at this year’s RMB Ultra-trail Cape Town but respect his decision to return to the UK.”
“We are welcoming over 400 international runners to Cape Town this week and over 2000 runners will take to the trails next Friday, Saturday and Sunday.”
Stuart McConnachie, Race Director
We wish Tom a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing him race again soon.
