Athletics
Beyond Football: How Africa Can Build Sports Franchises and Futures
Africa has never lacked passion for sport. From dusty community pitches to packed stadiums, sport is woven into the continent’s social fabric. Football, in particular, has long been Africa’s most powerful cultural and emotional connector. Yet while the passion is unquestionable, Africa’s sports systems remain largely underdeveloped
The success of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has proven something fundamental: African fans are ready. They are engaged, emotionally invested, digitally active, and hungry for high-quality, locally produced sporting events. What Africa has not yet done is translate this passion into a fully-fledged sports industry.
And that is the real opportunity.
This conversation is not just about football. Across basketball, athletics, rugby, cricket, volleyball, golf, combat sports, and many other disciplines, Africa sits on an extraordinary reserve of talent and cultural energy. What is missing are professional leagues, strong franchises, modern governance, reliable data systems, and integrated commercial models capable of turning sport into sustainable businesses.
Africa does not simply need more tournaments. It needs sports franchises, and futures.
From Passion to Industry
Globally, sport is big business. It creates jobs, drives tourism, attracts investment, and builds global brands. In Africa, however, sport is still too often treated as an event rather than an industry. Success is measured in moments, qualification, hosting rights, or individual brilliance, instead of in systems that endure.
AFCON shows what is possible when organisation, storytelling, and fan engagement align. The next step is to replicate that success across other sports and at every level, from grassroots to elite competition. This requires a deliberate shift in mindset: from administration to entrepreneurship, from survival to sustainability.
Sport should not only produce athletes. It should produce coaches, analysts, administrators, media professionals, marketers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs. Every stadium should be part of a wider ecosystem. Every league should be a platform for innovation, not just competition.
This is how futures are built.
Pillar One: The Business of Sport
The foundation of any sports industry is professionalism. Leagues, clubs, and federations must be run as businesses, with clear structures, contracts, and accountability.
Revenue cannot depend solely on sponsorships and government subventions. Ticketing, broadcasting rights, merchandising, digital content, betting partnerships, and direct-to-fan platforms must all be part of the commercial mix. African sports organisations must also encourage entrepreneurship in sports technology, media production, fan engagement, and merchandising.
Sport cannot grow sustainably if it is always waiting for handouts.
Pillar Two: Governance That Builds Trust
Governance remains one of Africa’s greatest weaknesses in sport. Weak institutions, opaque decision-making, and inconsistent regulations have undermined credibility and scared away investors.
Strong, independent federations with transparent operations are essential. Standardised league management systems, clear player contracts, and credible disciplinary frameworks must become the norm. Public–private partnerships can help drive commercialisation and infrastructure development, but only if governance standards inspire confidence.
Without trust, there is no investment.
Pillar Three: Infrastructure That Serves People
Africa does not need 100,000-seat stadiums in every city. What it needs are fit-for-purpose, multi-use facilities.
Modern training centres, community pitches, sports science hubs, and modular stadiums can support multiple sports while serving schools and local communities. Infrastructure must be designed for daily use, not occasional spectacle. When facilities are accessible, grassroots talent thrives.
Infrastructure is not about grandeur; it is about function and inclusion.
Pillar Four: Education and Skills Development
A sustainable sports industry requires educated professionals who understand how sport works beyond the field of play.
In the United States, Canada, and much of Europe, experiential learning is embedded within the sports ecosystem. Education is fused with leagues, clubs, events, and governing bodies, producing graduates who are industry-ready from day one.
Africa is beginning to see the impact of this model. Basketball offers a powerful example. Leaders such as Amadou Gallo Fall of the Basketball Africa League, , and Thierry Kita of NBA Africa brought global experience back to the continent and helped shape a professional ecosystem almost from scratch and former Toronto Raptors President and co-founder of Giants of Africa – Masai Ujiri has been supporting along with the late NBA Legend, Dikembe Mutombo and Luol Deng
The same pattern is visible in football governance. CAF’s recent transformation has been supported by a growing contingent of highly trained professionals, many of them alumni of global programmes such as the FIFA Masters, Real Madrid Graduate School, and other elite sports MBAs. Their presence has strengthened competitions, communications, commercial strategy, security, and digital operations.
Yet too many Africans who gain world-class sports education and experience end up employed exclusively by international federations, leagues, and clubs abroad. Africa must create systems that attract this expertise home and develop far more of it locally.
This means investing in specialised sports degrees, diplomas, and short courses in management, marketing, media, analytics, and event operations. It means clear certification pathways for coaches, referees, medical staff, and administrators. It also means youth academies that integrate education with athletic development, preparing players for life beyond competition.
Professionalism must begin at the grassroots.
Pillar Five: History, Memory, and Storytelling
Africa has a rich sporting history, but too much of it is undocumented, unarchived, and forgotten.
Preserving sporting history through archives, museums, and digital libraries is not nostalgia, it is brand building. Stories create identity, rivalries, and emotional connection. They give fans a reason to care beyond the scoreline.
Africa must own and tell its sporting stories, rather than allowing others to define them.
Pillar Six: Data as a Competitive Advantage
Modern sport runs on data. Performance analytics, fan engagement metrics, and operational insights shape decision-making across the global sports industry.
African leagues and federations must invest in centralised, standardised data systems. This unlocks value for sponsors, broadcasters, fantasy sports platforms, and betting markets. Data is not a luxury; it is infrastructure.
If Africa does not control its sports data, others will.
Pillar Seven: Digital Media and Fan Engagement
Africa is a mobile-first continent with one of the youngest populations in the world. This should be its greatest advantage.
Streaming platforms, OTT services, social media storytelling, podcasts, documentaries, and behind-the-scenes content can take African sport to global audiences at relatively low cost. Fan engagement must extend beyond match days, using apps, polls, fantasy leagues, and interactive experiences.
Crucially, this cannot be limited to major events like AFCON or the Basketball Africa League. It must apply at league, club, and grassroots levels year-round.
Pillar Eight: Sponsorship That Builds Ecosystems
Sponsorship should be more than logo placement. It should be partnership.
African brands must step up and invest in African sports at every level, rather than focusing almost exclusively on European leagues. Naming rights, experiential activations, and community-based campaigns can deliver real value while strengthening local sport.
When African companies invest locally, they help build industries, not just impressions.
Pillar Nine: Strategic Partnerships
Africa does not need charity partnerships; it needs strategic ones.
The Basketball Africa League has shown what is possible when global expertise meets African ambition. Cricket’s SA20, rugby’s professional pathways, and golf’s development circuits offer further examples. Football’s short-lived African Football League hinted at what could be achieved with the right structure.
This franchise-based model can be replicated across multiple sporting codes, deliberately designed around professionalism, governance, and long-term sustainability.
Franchises, not federations alone, will be the engines of growth.
Pillar Ten: Lifestyle, Culture, and Entertainment
Sport does not exist in isolation. It thrives where culture thrives.
Music, fashion, film, and celebrity culture should be integrated into sporting experiences. Fan zones, festivals, merchandise, and lifestyle products turn matches into events and clubs into brands. Imagine a sports ecosystem where Afrobeats and Amapiano are not just opening-ceremony soundtracks, but everyday expressions of identity.
This fusion is where Africa can be truly original.
Pillar Eleven: Hospitality and Sports Tourism
Sport can power tourism and urban development.
Integrated hospitality, hotels, transport, catering, and event management, can turn tournaments into multi-day economic drivers. The idea of sports precincts or “sports cities” around stadiums offers Africa an opportunity to rethink urban planning through sport.
Every visiting fan is an economic opportunity.
Pillar Twelve: Grassroots at the Centre
Everything must begin at the grassroots.
Community and school sport must be organised professionally, not casually. Safeguarding, coaching standards, administration, and facilities at the lowest levels shape the quality of leadership at the top.
If Africa wants world-class sport, it must build it from the ground up.
The Bigger Picture
Africa does not just need sport. It needs a sports industry.
AFCON proves the passion exists. The challenge now is to build professional structures, commercial systems, and compelling narratives that turn talent into careers and games into businesses. By investing across these pillars, Africa can create franchises, sustainable jobs, and global sports brands that are proudly homegrown.
The dream is not just to play. It is to thrive, to invest, and to win on the continent, and on the world stage.
Africa has never lacked passion for sport. From dusty community pitches to packed stadiums, sport is woven into the continent’s social fabric. Football, in particular, has long been Africa’s most powerful cultural and emotional connector. Yet while the passion is unquestionable, Africa’s sports systems remain largely underdeveloped.
The success of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) has proven something fundamental: African fans are ready. They are engaged, emotionally invested, digitally active, and hungry for high-quality, locally produced sporting events. What Africa has not yet done is translate this passion into a fully-fledged sports industry.
And that is the real opportunity.
This conversation is not just about football. Across basketball, athletics, rugby, cricket, volleyball, golf, combat sports, and many other disciplines, Africa sits on an extraordinary reserve of talent and cultural energy. What is missing are professional leagues, strong franchises, modern governance, reliable data systems, and integrated commercial models capable of turning sport into sustainable businesses.
Africa does not simply need more tournaments. It needs sports franchises, and futures.
From Passion to Industry
Globally, sport is big business. It creates jobs, drives tourism, attracts investment, and builds global brands. In Africa, however, sport is still too often treated as an event rather than an industry. Success is measured in moments, qualification, hosting rights, or individual brilliance, instead of in systems that endure.
AFCON shows what is possible when organisation, storytelling, and fan engagement align. The next step is to replicate that success across other sports and at every level, from grassroots to elite competition. This requires a deliberate shift in mindset: from administration to entrepreneurship, from survival to sustainability.
Sport should not only produce athletes. It should produce coaches, analysts, administrators, media professionals, marketers, data scientists, and entrepreneurs. Every stadium should be part of a wider ecosystem. Every league should be a platform for innovation, not just competition.
This is how futures are built.
Pillar One: The Business of Sport
The foundation of any sports industry is professionalism. Leagues, clubs, and federations must be run as businesses, with clear structures, contracts, and accountability.
Revenue cannot depend solely on sponsorships and government subventions. Ticketing, broadcasting rights, merchandising, digital content, betting partnerships, and direct-to-fan platforms must all be part of the commercial mix. African sports organisations must also encourage entrepreneurship in sports technology, media production, fan engagement, and merchandising.
Sport cannot grow sustainably if it is always waiting for handouts.
Pillar Two: Governance That Builds Trust
Governance remains one of Africa’s greatest weaknesses in sport. Weak institutions, opaque decision-making, and inconsistent regulations have undermined credibility and scared away investors.
Strong, independent federations with transparent operations are essential. Standardised league management systems, clear player contracts, and credible disciplinary frameworks must become the norm. Public–private partnerships can help drive commercialisation and infrastructure development, but only if governance standards inspire confidence.
Without trust, there is no investment.
Pillar Three: Infrastructure That Serves People
Africa does not need 100,000-seat stadiums in every city. What it needs are fit-for-purpose, multi-use facilities.
Modern training centres, community pitches, sports science hubs, and modular stadiums can support multiple sports while serving schools and local communities. Infrastructure must be designed for daily use, not occasional spectacle. When facilities are accessible, grassroots talent thrives.
Infrastructure is not about grandeur; it is about function and inclusion.
Pillar Four: Education and Skills Development
A sustainable sports industry requires educated professionals who understand how sport works beyond the field of play.
In the United States, Canada, and much of Europe, experiential learning is embedded within the sports ecosystem. Education is fused with leagues, clubs, events, and governing bodies, producing graduates who are industry-ready from day one.
Africa is beginning to see the impact of this model. Basketball offers a powerful example. Leaders such as Amadou Gallo Fall of the Basketball Africa League, , and Thierry Kita of NBA Africa brought global experience back to the continent and helped shape a professional ecosystem almost from scratch and former Toronto Raptors President and co-founder of Giants of Africa – Masai Ujiri has been supporting along with the late NBA Legend, Dikembe Mutombo and Luol Deng
The same pattern is visible in football governance. CAF’s recent transformation has been supported by a growing contingent of highly trained professionals, many of them alumni of global programmes such as the FIFA Masters, Real Madrid Graduate School, and other elite sports MBAs. Their presence has strengthened competitions, communications, commercial strategy, security, and digital operations.
Yet too many Africans who gain world-class sports education and experience end up employed exclusively by international federations, leagues, and clubs abroad. Africa must create systems that attract this expertise home and develop far more of it locally.
This means investing in specialised sports degrees, diplomas, and short courses in management, marketing, media, analytics, and event operations. It means clear certification pathways for coaches, referees, medical staff, and administrators. It also means youth academies that integrate education with athletic development, preparing players for life beyond competition.
Professionalism must begin at the grassroots.
Pillar Five: History, Memory, and Storytelling
Africa has a rich sporting history, but too much of it is undocumented, unarchived, and forgotten.
Preserving sporting history through archives, museums, and digital libraries is not nostalgia, it is brand building. Stories create identity, rivalries, and emotional connection. They give fans a reason to care beyond the scoreline.
Africa must own and tell its sporting stories, rather than allowing others to define them.
Pillar Six: Data as a Competitive Advantage
Modern sport runs on data. Performance analytics, fan engagement metrics, and operational insights shape decision-making across the global sports industry.
African leagues and federations must invest in centralised, standardised data systems. This unlocks value for sponsors, broadcasters, fantasy sports platforms, and betting markets. Data is not a luxury; it is infrastructure.
If Africa does not control its sports data, others will.
Pillar Seven: Digital Media and Fan Engagement
Africa is a mobile-first continent with one of the youngest populations in the world. This should be its greatest advantage.
Streaming platforms, OTT services, social media storytelling, podcasts, documentaries, and behind-the-scenes content can take African sport to global audiences at relatively low cost. Fan engagement must extend beyond match days, using apps, polls, fantasy leagues, and interactive experiences.
Crucially, this cannot be limited to major events like AFCON or the Basketball Africa League. It must apply at league, club, and grassroots levels year-round.
Pillar Eight: Sponsorship That Builds Ecosystems
Sponsorship should be more than logo placement. It should be partnership.
African brands must step up and invest in African sports at every level, rather than focusing almost exclusively on European leagues. Naming rights, experiential activations, and community-based campaigns can deliver real value while strengthening local sport.
When African companies invest locally, they help build industries, not just impressions.
Pillar Nine: Strategic Partnerships
Africa does not need charity partnerships; it needs strategic ones.
The Basketball Africa League has shown what is possible when global expertise meets African ambition. Cricket’s SA20, rugby’s professional pathways, and golf’s development circuits offer further examples. Football’s short-lived African Football League hinted at what could be achieved with the right structure.
This franchise-based model can be replicated across multiple sporting codes, deliberately designed around professionalism, governance, and long-term sustainability.
Franchises, not federations alone, will be the engines of growth.
Pillar Ten: Lifestyle, Culture, and Entertainment
Sport does not exist in isolation. It thrives where culture thrives.
Music, fashion, film, and celebrity culture should be integrated into sporting experiences. Fan zones, festivals, merchandise, and lifestyle products turn matches into events and clubs into brands. Imagine a sports ecosystem where Afrobeats and Amapiano are not just opening-ceremony soundtracks, but everyday expressions of identity.
This fusion is where Africa can be truly original.
Pillar Eleven: Hospitality and Sports Tourism
Sport can power tourism and urban development.
Integrated hospitality, hotels, transport, catering, and event management, can turn tournaments into multi-day economic drivers. The idea of sports precincts or “sports cities” around stadiums offers Africa an opportunity to rethink urban planning through sport.
Every visiting fan is an economic opportunity.
Pillar Twelve: Grassroots at the Centre
Everything must begin at the grassroots.
Community and school sport must be organised professionally, not casually. Safeguarding, coaching standards, administration, and facilities at the lowest levels shape the quality of leadership at the top.
If Africa wants world-class sport, it must build it from the ground up.
The Bigger Picture
Africa does not just need sport. It needs a sports industry.
AFCON proves the passion exists. The challenge now is to build professional structures, commercial systems, and compelling narratives that turn talent into careers and games into businesses. By investing across these pillars, Africa can create franchises, sustainable jobs, and global sports brands that are proudly homegrown.
The dream is not just to play. It is to thrive, to invest, and to win on the continent, and on the world stage.
The post Beyond Football: How Africa Can Build Sports Franchises and Futures appeared first on Sports Network Africa.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria has officially welcomed sprint sensation Favour Ofili back into its fold, signaling a fresh chapter in the relationship between the athlete and the federation.
AFN President Tonobok Okowa expressed delight over Ofili’s return, emphasizing the need for unity and encouragement around one of Nigeria’s brightest track talents.
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According to Okowa, the focus now should be on providing the right environment for the 100m and 200m star to thrive, stressing that what she needs most from stakeholders is “love, support, encouragement and more love.”
The federation’s stance comes at a crucial time for Nigerian athletics, as it looks to rebuild trust and strengthen its athlete relations ahead of major international competitions.
Ofili’s return is expected to boost Nigeria’s sprint prospects, with the AFN hopeful that renewed backing from officials, fans, and the athletics community will help her reach her full potential on the global stage.
The Nigerian sprint star Favour Ofili was denied approval to switch allegiance to Türkiye after a ruling by World Athletics.
The decision followed a review of her application alongside ten others submitted by the Türkiye Athletics Federation, all linked to a government-backed recruitment drive ahead of the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.
Why it was rejected:
World Athletics ruled that the transfer was part of a wider strategy to recruit foreign athletes with lucrative contracts, which:
* Undermines the integrity of national competitions
* Discourages countries from developing homegrown talent
* Risks replacing local athletes with imported competitors
Despite considering her personal situation, including her participation at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the panel concluded that approving the move would compromise these core principles.
Ofili remains eligible to compete for Nigeria but cannot represent Türkiye in international events.
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The post World Athletics Blocks Ofili’s Switch to Türkiye, as AFN Welcomes Back Athlete appeared first on Sports247 Nigeria.
Chet Sainsbury would have celebrated his 84th birthday on the weekend (Sunday 12 April) and might have had a lump in his celestial throat had he looked down on proceedings at the 2026 Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon, powered by BYD.
The legendary sports administrator would have been delighted that his widow Annemarie, who was the first professional administrator to serve at the Two Oceans, had been invited to present the Ultra-marathon winners’ trophies to Arthur Jantjies and Gerda Steyn at the prize-giving ceremony on Saturday.
He would also have given a nod of approval to the organisational standards achieved by the Two Oceans staging partner, Stillwater Sports, in just six months.
Inviting Annemarie Sainsbury to present the trophy was one of several references to past Two Oceans memories and traditions, highlighted this year Stillwater working in conjunction with the Two Oceans Board.
The return of the Two Oceans Marathon tradition of sounding the fish horn to signal the start of the race was one example. And remembering the legendary era of Two Oceans organisational excellence under Team Sainsbury was another.
Runners who had completed ten, twenty, thirty and even forty Two Oceans ‘Voyages’ over the years enjoyed the opportunity to relive memories at the Blue Number Club dinner before the weekend. Many of those included tales of the Sainsbury days, triggered by the recognition of signs that the Oceans was returning to the days of organisational excellence which had characterised its earlier years.
Chet Sainsbury had moved seamlessly into leadership once he had ended his rugby career as a fiery loose forward for Villagers, soon becoming chairperson of the rugby club.
It was as well for athletics and road running that Sainsbury chose to represent Villagers, which club shared their Brookside grounds and facilities with Celtic Harriers, founding club for the Two Oceans Marathon.
Chet and Annemarie happened to be at the Villagers grounds at Brookside and watched Natalian Derek Preiss lead a field of 185 finishers across the line in the 1975 Two Oceans. That triggered his interest in the sport and he soon took over the reins of Celtic’s other big road race – the Peninsula Marathon.
Harold Berman, another legend of the Two Oceans who had been involved in every race since it’s inauguration in 1970 until illness kept him from this year’s event, was club secretary at Celtics at the time.
“Chet Sainsbury had excelled as Race Director of the Peninsula Marathon for two years,” Berman recalled recently. “When I heard that Chris Roux was standing down (as Two Oceans Race Director) I went to Chet and told him that he would have to take over Two Oceans.
“The administration of the Two Oceans started out in the Sainsbury’s lounge – all the papers and files were there before being moved to a pre-fabricated mobile building at Brookside.”
Chet’s wife, Annamarie, had been involved from the start as race secretary before she was appointed as Race Administrator, the first full-time Two Oceans official, and she served Two Oceans for 21 years. They made a formidable team.
A highly principled and hard-working man, Chet was not one to bend to popular demand. He did not easily tolerate fools and ensured teams under his leadership achieved excellence in all their endeavours, resulting in road running races which were seldom surpassed in organisational excellence.
Chet hand-picked a few people to strengthen the Two Oceans in key areas. Marketing, media and sponsorships required attention and Stefanie Schultzen’s remarkable skill set in those areas took the Two Oceans to new heights during her tenure.
In 2005 she delivered the powerful tag-line, ‘The World’s Most Beautiful Marathon’ and introduced the International Friendship Run in 2007, one of the event’s most successful initiatives. Later, the popular #RunAsOne and ‘Designed to Run’ campaigns, the latter as part of Cape Town’s World Design Capital season in 2014, were part of the Schultzen-Sainsbury legacy.
“In addition to the professional team, Chet led a group of outstanding volunteers on the Two Oceans committee,” Berman continued. “They respected him completely and would do almost anything for him. Once he decided to stand down, most of them also withdrew from the committee.”
Chet’s best qualities came to the fore in a crisis, and his leadership rescued the Two Oceans from disaster on more than one occasion, having to overcome gale force winds (which destroyed the substantial start and finish infrastructure), floods which threatened the integrity of the course and unseasonably hot weather at various times. No race was ever cancelled.
Each time Chet’s calm and firm direction turned around the situation which had threatened calamity.
By the time Chet Sainsbury stepped down from Oceans Directorship after the 2007 event, the 56km race had attracted almost 10 000 entries, while the half marathon, introduced in 1998, had grown to close on 8000. He had set new standards in road running administration and taken the sport to new levels.
Chet continued to take part in the Ultra-marathon and in 2013 he answered a call to stand in for a year as Acting Director, a role which extended to 2015, before Carol Vosloo was appointed in 2016.
Chet ran the first of his 32 Two Oceans Ultra-marathons at 35 in 1978 and the last in 2014 at 71, with his fastest time of 3 hr 58 min 01 sec achieved in 1987.
The launch of the “Sainsbury medal” in 2006 for runners running the 56km faster than 5 hours, reflects the esteem in which both Chet and Annemarie have been held by Two Oceans.
The post Two Oceans success recalls glory days as the spirit of Sainsbury lives on appeared first on Sports Network Africa.
Athletics
Kenyan clean-sweep in the Totalsport Two Oceans Half Marathon as the ‘World’s Most Beautiful Marathon’ charts an exciting new passage for the future
24-year-old Kenyan athlete, Felix Kibet Masai, led a Kenyan clean-sweep of the medals in the men’s competition in the Totalsports Two Oceans Half Marathon, powered by BYD, from the University of Cape Town this morning (Sunday 12 April) , while Lavinia Haitope of Namibia took honours in the women’s race after a long-anticipated return to the Two Oceans 21km.
More than 14 000 runners enjoyed ideal running conditions to complete the challenging course, which included testing climbs up Edinburgh Drive and Southern Cross Drive, in the climax to a weekend of top-quality distance running in the Mother City.
Masai fell just a second short of the existing course record of 1:03:16, set by Namibian Namakoe Nkhasi in 2017, while Haitope’s winning time of 1:14:36 was just less than two minutes outside Ethiopian Biru Meseret Mengistu’s 2013 course record.
When the Kenyans come to town, there’s little to stop the top distance running nation on the planet and the three high-quality training partners, Masai, Shadrack Ngumbau Musyoka and Joshua Cheptegei Mengich proved a cut-above their opposition, filling the top three positions.
With former race winners, Cape Town-based Zimbabwean, Fortunate Chidzivo, and British athlete, Emma Pallant-Browne, finishing second and third behind Haitope in the women’s race, South African athletes were cut out of the six podium medals for the first time in the race’s history, pointing to the increasing international competitiveness of the Two Oceans Half Marathon.
Masai is part of a group of Kenyans that have based themselves in The Mother City to prepare for the Absa RUN YOUR CITY CAPE TOWN 10K on 10 May and was running in the colours of local club, Go Tyme Bank Running Club.
“The thinking is that with some of our athletes living and training with the Kenyans for month, they can get some exposure to the type of training and intensity that the guys who are running under 28 minutes for 10km do,” said Tyme Bank coach, Chris Bruwer.
While the Kenyans brought welcome pace to the race, Pretoria athlete, George Kusche, surprised by front running in the early stages. A sub-four minute miler some years back, Kusche placed 12th in last year’s Comrades Marathon and is currently in training for this year’s 90km mega-race in June.
Nonetheless, Kusche showed surprising speed over shorter distances to take the nine-strong lead pack through 5km in 15:35 and was up with the Kenyan trio through halfway on Southern Cross Drive in 31:27.
But a surge from Masai, at the peak of his powers having raced to a 27:24 10km personal best in Lille, France, just last week and boasting a half marathon best of 1:00:51, relegated Kusche to the role of ‘chaser’ as the Kenyan trio raced clear on the longest climb of the race.
The three reached the highest point in 40 minutes with Kusche 15 seconds back in fourth as the athletes turned for home.
Musyoka, who won the Standard Chartered Bank Half Marathon in Nairobi late last year and raced to his life-time half marathon best of 1:00:16 in Malaga, Spain, last month, took the trio through 15km in 45:56 before making his move for supremacy.
But it was Masai who forged a gap on the descent past Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens and held the lead as he turned back onto the M3 towards the university campus.
Musyoka fought back up Chet’s Hill but Masai was not about to surrender and he flew to the finish to win his Two Oceans debut by 24 seconds.
Mengich increased his pace and draw level with Musyoka as they raced onto the UCT sports field, 150m from the finish, but lost out to his compatriot by a second in a sprint for the runners-up berth.
Kusch finished ahead of the more favoured South Africans, including Bennet Seloyi, Thabang Mosiako and Stephen Mokoka, to take fourth in an impressive 1:04:11 with Phantane athlete, Cwenga Nose, improving his last year’s time by 12 seconds but dropped two positions to take fifth in 1:04:43.
Pallant-Browne set the early pace in the women’s race, taking the field through 5km in 17:58. Haitope was at her shoulder just a second off the pace with Chidzivo five seconds back in third, running with Lesotho’s Nthabiseng Letokoto.
Chidzivo took over at the helm as runners past the lively BYD activation point at Ladies Mile Extension Roundabout, but Haitope raced clear as athletes began their climb up Southern Cross Drive and had built an unassailable lead by the top of the climb.
She raced home without missing a beat to break the tape in 1:14:36, a significant improvement on her previous fastest on the course set in 2013 in the first of her three successive Two Oceans Half Marathon appearances and almost two minutes clear of Chidzivo.
Three times world duathlon champion, Pallant-Browne, held on for third in 1:18:09.
Following several difficult Two Oceans Marathon years, where partnership, logistical and governance issues clouded participants’ experience, 2026 saw a return to the organizational competence which characterised the event in the earlier years.
According to Two Oceans NPC Chairperson, Chris Goldschmidt, the focus this year was on getting the basics in place while introducing new partnerships to take the event forward. This was clearly achieved and celebrated this afternoon at a final race function to hand over trophies and prizes to age group and other category winners.
The next twelve months could see the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon move into new territory, both literarily and metaphorically as it seeks to re-calibrate itself as one of the world’s most successful and popular running events and as one of the City of Cape Town’s best-loved mega-projects.
The post Kenyan clean-sweep in the Totalsport Two Oceans Half Marathon as the ‘World’s Most Beautiful Marathon’ charts an exciting new passage for the future appeared first on Sports Network Africa.
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