Athletics
Big, Bold and Beautiful – Sanlam Cape Town Marathon prepares to boogy
Two legends of the sport will make their Sanlam Cape Town Marathon debut on Sunday 24 May this year as global interest in the next Abbott’s World Marathon Major builds to fever pitch, with fewer than 60 days to the start.
A 440% increase in international participation in the SCTM will see an array of nationalities and cultures participating in what might well be the biggest global participation athletics event on the African continent.
“Africa does not often get the opportunity on the global stage to celebrate its excellence. We understand the responsibility and privilege we have as we host 8500 international participants and their families from 102 countries, including 25 from Africa,“ said SCTM CEO Clark Gardner at a 60-day launch hosted at the event’s Official Vehicle Partner, Mercedes-Benz, at its flagship Century City showroom last week.
And further boosting the international flavour of the event, and the coffers of the region during the tourist off-peak ‘Secret Season’, is the news that Cape Town will be taking over the baton from New York in hosting 1800 of the world’s best age group marathon runners for the Abbott World Marathon Majors MTT Age Group World Championships.
The sold-out marathon will see 27 000 runners on the start line on Sunday 24 May, in addition to 11 000 in the Peace 10km, 4000 in the 5km fun run and up to 1500 in the traditional three trail races over 11km, 22km and 43km.
Good news for elite athletes is that the prize purse has been significantly increased this year, with the total prize purse for the marathon top 10 and age group contenders (male and female combined) climbing by just over R1 million (40%), from R2,578,000 to R3,598,000 which rises to a dizzy R6,5 million if all incentives are won.
“2026 is set to be a landmark year for the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon,” said Shadi Chauke, Group Executive: Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Sanlam. “And we are delighted that 3000 of our own employees will participate in one of the events on the racing weekend.
“With a presence in 25 African countries, Sanlam believes deeply in Africa, and in the immense potential of its people. Our purpose remains clear: to empower all Africans to run with confidence, reach their dreams, and Unite as One.”
The extension of adidas’s commitment to the event as technical sponsor for another six years adds to the prestige and financial stability of the race. “It’s an immense privilege that Cape Town Marathon has agreed to renew terms to enable us to be with the marathon for another six years,” said Head Senior Director, Brand, at adidas, Tom Brown.
“This will our fifth year associated with this great event. Our sponsorship has been elevated to a global level this year and will sit alongside the adidas sponsorships at Berlin and Boston Marathons.
“There is always keen anticipation to view the adidas kit for Cape Town each year. This year we’ve paid homage to the event itself with the gold and blue colours coming together in both footwear and apparel.
“Regarding our shoes, the Boston 13’s special edition for Cape Town Marathon again has the race logo on the shoe and incorporates the very best of adidas running technology.”
With the potential for the 2026 SCTM to be declared an Abbotts World Marathon Major should this year’s race tick all the boxes, quality as well as quantity is a watchword and the elite field represents the strongest ever assembled for a marathon on African soil.
The men’s lineup includes no fewer than 14 athletes with personal best times faster than Abdisa Tola’s 2024 course record of 2:08:15, while nine women racing in Cape Town have run inside Glenrose Xaba’s 2:22:22 record time set in the same year.
“To deliver on our opportunity, we have also assembled the very best marathon elite and wheelchair field the African continent has ever seen,” Gardner continued. “Led by the best marathon runner of all time, Eliud Kipchoge, we have at least 15 starters in each gender who could break our course and African All-comers records.
“The balance of international and South African legends of the sport with the stars of the future, and a healthy mix of African spirit, should make for an incredible race come 24 May 2026.”
Undoubtedly the biggest name and drawcard is that of Kipchoge. Few would question his credentials as the world’s best marathoner of all time. There is quite simply none other who can compare with his record of excellence and consistency.
During a phenomenal 20 years of racing success at the highest level, which started with a World Championship 5000m gold medal as a teenager in 2003, Kipchoge was virtually unbeatable over the marathon distance. His rivals accepted they were running for silver, at best.
During Kipchoge’s glorious double-decade, two Olympic Marathon gold medals (Rio in 2016 and Sapporo, Japan in 2021), a world marathon record of 2:01:09 set in Berlin in 2022 (bettered the following year by another Kenyan, Kevin Kiptum), a 1:59:40 marathon time at the INEOS Challenge in Vienna (not accepted for record purposes) and a staggering eleven World Marathon Major titles fell to Kipchoge’s remarkable distance-running cornucopia.
Even at 41 years of age, Kipchoge remains competitive, as his 6th position in 2:05:25 in last year’s London Marathon underlines. The Kenyan super-star plans to start his two-year world tour of all continents in Cape Town this May.
“It is truly special for me to run my first ever marathon on African soil. The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon represents a powerful connection to the continent that has shaped so many great athletes,” says Kipchoge.
“I am excited to experience this event for the first time, to feel the energy of the course, and most importantly, to meet and share this moment with the fans. Running has always been about unity, and I look forward to celebrating that spirit together in Cape Town.
“To start my World Tour in Cape Town is very special. To race my first ever marathon on the African continent holds deep meaning for me. I cannot wait!”
While all eyes will be on Kipchoge, a clutch of other platinum, gold and silver athletes will be aiming for their fair share of media attention and a generous portion of the substantially increased prize money at the sharp end of the race.
When Stephen Kiprop ran 4th in the 2024 Berlin Marathon in 2:03:37 in just his second attempt at the distance, a time which would have been a world record just 13 years previously, many thought that Kiprop would go on to achieve higher honours for the marathon.
At just 26 years of age, his best marathon years likely lie ahead of him and victory in Cape Town, likely in record time, could prove a catalyst to take him to new heights.
When Maru Teferi’s family emigrated from Ethiopia to Israel in 2006 when their son was 14, it provided him with rich opportunities to develop his athletics talent. Teferi holds his adopted country’s marathon and half-marathon records and has competed for Israel in multiple Olympic Games and World Championships, most notably in Budapest in 2023 when he won the silver medal in the marathon.
Teferi’s lifetime best came the following year with a national-record-breaking 2:04:44 in finishing a competitive 7th at the Valencia Marathon in December (just 20 seconds adrift of the podium) and he will be looking to be similarly competitive in Cape Town in May.
A host of 2:05 marathoners will line up in the DHL Stadium precinct in May with an eye and heartbeat of being part of African marathon-running history with South Africa’s Elroy Gelant, who raced to a national record of 2:05:36 in Hamburg, Germany, last year, leading the pack as crowd favourite.
Kenyans Bernard Biwott (2:05:25) and Justus Kangogo (2:05:57) and Ethiopians Yihunilign Adane (2:05:33), Mulugeta Asefa Uma (2:05:33) and Boki Kebede Asefa (2:05:40) all have impressive pedigrees and will provide considerable depth in quality with potential podium positions beckoning.
At 41, three times winner of the Cape Town Marathon, Stephen Mokoka, boasts a life-time best of 2:06:42 (Osaka, Japan, 2024) but still believes he has what it takes to compete at the highest level, while 2022 winner of the Durban International Marathon and twice top ten finisher at the World Championships, Zimbabwean Isaac Mpofu (best of 2:06:48), Ethiopian 2:06 marathoners Jemal Yimer Mekonen and Adane Gebre Kebede (winner of the 2023 Cape Town Marathon) and Kenya’s Leonard Langat (best of 2:06:59) will all compete strongly in this exceptional lineup.
As if this stellar field was not enough to quicken the pulses of marathon fans, the announcement that the hottest name in South African distance-running, Adriaan Wildschutt, will also be part of the 2026 SCTM looks certain to clinch its status as Africa’s race of the year. Some years away from a marathon debut, Wildschutt, who took the New York City Half Marathon by storm two weeks ago, will participate as a designated pacer, scheduled to take the field through the first 25km at optimal pace.
One of the athletes who could benefit from Wildschutt’s pacing is his older brother, Nadeel, who will be looking to improve his impressive 2:09:30 debut in Arizona last December with a view to qualifying for the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. The qualifying time required for LA is likely to be even faster than the challenging 2:08:10 for Paris in 2024.
Marathon debutants amongst elite athletes always add interest. Former SA 10km record-holder and multi-national championship gold-medallist, Precious Mashele, will be making his marathon debut in the SCTM, potentially also with a view to competing in Los Angeles, while Lesotho’s Kamohelo Mofolo, who has raced 1:00:52 for the half marathon, also tests his footprints over 42km for the first time.
Leading South African trail athlete, Cape Town-based Kane Reilly, will be out to demonstrate his prowess on tarmac in his first road marathon.
While one legend of the sport heads up the men’s field in the SCTM, another takes centre stage in the women’s – Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat. Just over a decade ago, when the Kenyan athlete was winning world championship titles almost at will, she was simply ‘Edna’.
At 46, most former elite athletes would have long ago hung up their racing flats and taken to the couch, becoming social joggers or age group contenders at best. A handful, including Kiplagat, remain competitive, retaining their hunger for success at the highest level.
At 41, she won the fourth of her World Marathon Major titles at the 2021 Boston Marathon while three years later she returned to the world’s oldest marathon. She contended strongly for line honours before grabbing the final podium place in 2:23:21, less than a minute behind her compatriot, Helen Obiri, who took the title.
And less than four months ago, 46-year-old Kiplagat ran second to another compatriot, Catherine Amanangole in the Abu Dhabi Marathon, finishing in 2:25:07.
Kiplagat will best be remembered for her dominance in women’s marathoning in the decade of the 2010s, when she twice won gold at the World Championships (Daegu, South Korea, in 2011 and in Moscow in 2013) and was seldom off the World Marathon Majors podiums, winning in New York, London (after placing second in three successive years) and Boston.
All of her competitive racing took place been outside Africa in the past two decades and, like Kipchoge, she will be determined to deliver a top performance on ‘home soil’ in the twilight of her competitive career as an elite athlete.
Kiplagat’s fastest marathon is 2:19:50, almost three minutes inside Xaba’s SCTM record, which Kiplagat achieved when she placed second in London in 2012, but the fastest in the field is Lonah Chemtai Salpeter, 37, whose 2:17:45 win in the 2020 Tokyo Marathon was the sixth fastest in the world at the time.
Salpeter left her home in Kenya in 2008 to work in Israel, where she started running as a hobby at university in 2010, before meeting and marrying running coach Dan Salpeter. She obtained Israeli citizenship just in time to qualify for the Rio Olympics in 2016, where she was forced to drop out of the marathon after 35km.
Consistent improvement has marked Salpeter’s career and she currently holds all of Israel’s distance running records from 1500m on the track to the marathon.
Salpeter followed up her 2020 Tokyo Marathon triumph with a bronze medal in 2:20:18 at the 2022 World Championships in Eugene, Oregon, and podium positions at the New York City and Boston Marathons in 2022 and 2023 in 2:23:30 and 2:21:57 respectively and will have her sights set on becoming the first athlete to run under 2 hrs 20 min in Cape Town.
While Kiplagat and Salpeter boast impressive marathon CV’s, based on their performances in recent years, the younger Ethiopian trio of Ruti Aga, 32, Dera Dida, 29, and Mestawut Fikir, 26, whose personal best times are separated by just 39 seconds, could hold sway in determining the podium positions on 24 May.
Aga ran a lifetime best of 2:18:09 in winning the 2023 Yellow River Estuary Marathon in Dongying, China, and equalled it just over 2,5 months later in Dubai, where she ran second to her compatriot, Tigist Ketema. In January this year she defended her title at the Xiamen Marathon in China, winning in 2:22:45.
Dida ran her personal best of 2:18:32 when she placed second in Dubai in January 2025, while Fikir’s lifetime best of 2:18:48 came in finishing second to Ketema at the 2024 Berlin Marathon. And just four weeks ago Fikir raced to 7th place in 2:20:00 at this year’s Tokyo Marathon.
Bahrain’s Desi Jisa Mokonin (personal best of 2:20:07), Ethiopia’s Waganesh Mekasha (2:20:26), who both set their best times last year, and Ethiopian Shuko Genemo (2:21:35), who ran her best in 2024 are other high-quality athletes who have run faster than the SCTM record and will add to the competitiveness of the field.
A downside to the announcement of the field for this year’s race, it is the absence of South Africa’s leading women marathons, for reasons of injury or race scheduling, with local interest focussing on Cape Town-based Zimbabwean, Fortunate Chidzivo, who boasts a 2:33 marathoner at her best.
Former British multisport star and three-time World Duathlon Champion, Emme Pallant-Brown, now a South African resident, will be making her marathon debut.
“We don’t just want to compete with the other World Majors, we want Cape Town to be the best World Marathon Major!” concluded Carl Rothmann, CEO of Sanlam Investments. “To have so many runners here with PBs inside our course records is an incredibly exciting day for distance running in South Africa.
“This is a journey for us. We have confirmed an extension of our sponsorship for a further five years which underlines our desire for Africa to own an absolutely world class marathon.”
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