Athletics
King Arthur rules at Two Oceans Round Table
They’re calling him ‘King Arthur’ in Hopetown this weekend after the town’s new favourite son, Arthur Jantjies, became their ‘knight in shining armour’, putting his rivals to the sword to win the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon, powered by BYD, this morning (Saturday 10 April).
And creating history in her favourite race, Gerda Steyn devastated the strongest women’s field in Two Oceans history to win the ‘World’s Most Beautiful Marathon’ in Cape Town for an unprecedented seventh time.
With a population of just over 10 000, Hopetown in the Northern Cape Province is best known for the discovery of two of South Africa’s largest diamonds almost two hundred years ago. Today they discovered another and its name is Arthur Jantjies!
In one of the biggest surprises in the 56-year history of the race, Two Oceans 56km debutant, Jantjies, 25, ran the perfect race in ideal running conditions, biding his time behind the leaders before unleashing a powerful final 8km burst that took him to victory.
The strength of Jantjies’ finish left Two Oceans champions for the past two years, Onalenna Khonkhobe and Joseph Seutloali, for dead and he raced home in 3 hrs 09 min 25 sec, 35 seconds clear of Khonkhobe and the fastest time in the past four years.
“I can’t explain how I’m feeling,” Jantjies remarked. “Winning the Two Oceans Marathon is huge – it changes my life!
“God is good. And I must thank my coach for all he did. I had great competition today – my competitors put up a great challenge.
“I wasn’t surprised at my win because I had put in the hard work,” Jantjies admitted. “Training for six weeks in Dulstroom with my coach left me feeling confident in my ability.
“Going up Constantia Nek, I told myself ‘just let them do all the work and run behind them. Save my energy for the finish and just come through when it’s pick up time’. And that’s what happened.”
Playfully, Jantjies acknowledged his status as the ‘unknown warrior’, his hands across his face as he ran onto the University of Cape Town’s Green Mile near the finish. But the ‘reveal party’ and the reign of King Arthur began as he broke both his cover and the tape to win the biggest prize of his life, pocketing R380 000 for the win.
Moving to the John Hamlett-coached Pan African Resources (PAR) Elite Running Club proved an outstanding move for Jantjies, who flourished in the company of the club’s leading athletes.
Hamlett has enjoyed considerable success over more than a decade with his charges including 2013 Two Oceans winner, David Gatrebe, and 2015 Comrades Marathon champion, Gift Kelehe. Being exposed to such company at high altitude in Dulstroom, Mpumalanga, did wonders for Jantjies, whose credentials coming into the race were modest, at best.
A marathon PB of 2:19:32, achieved in finishing 23rd behind Elroy Gelant at the ASA Championships in Durban in 2024, 26th position in 2:22:40 at the Cape Town Marathon later that year and 9th place in last year’s ASA Championships at the Peninsula Marathon in Cape Town in 2:27:07 would scarcely have caused his rivals concern going into the race.
But his two top ten gold medals in the Two Oceans Half Marathon in the past two years pointed to speed and talent and the training camp in Dulstroom proved the perfect tonic.
One person not surprised at Jantjies victory was Gerda Steyn, who enjoyed a number of training runs with him during her own preparation in Dulstroom. “I’m really pleased for him – he has significant talent and is a wonderfully humble person,” she said.
And whereas Steyn’s own success was anything but surprising, her hard=fought victory over some of Africa’s leading ultra-marathon athletes is something to be savoured and celebrated.
Not since Bruce Fordyce’s domination at Comrades Marathon in the 1980s has the country produced an athlete of the talent, determination and sheer professionalism to sustain an ultra-marathon career at the highest level for more than a decade.
“Today for my main goal was to win my seventh title at the Two Oceans Marathon so I’m very happy that I achieved what I set out to do,” Hollywood Athletics Club athlete, Steyn, reflected after crossing the finish line in 3:27:43, just 49 seconds outside her 2024 race record and the second fastest time ever recorded.
Steyn finished strongly and still had the energy to jog an additional 100 metres or so to acknowledge the support of her fans.
In contrast, her closest rivals, second-placed Kenyan, Margaret Jepchumba, and Zimbabwe-born Nobuhle Nobukhosi Tshuma, who finished third, collapsed and crawled to the finish and were stretchered away to recover in the medical tent.
“I knew going into the race that I faced a very strong field. So I chose to race hard from the start to try to prevent any rival from getting away.
“At one stage I saw that the record was a possibility and in the end I was less than a minute outside the mark. But today was all about my seventh win”.
Might Steyn consider changing her tactics in future to give herself the best chance of improving the record?
“I think the next phase (of the women’s record) will be to run under 3 hrs 25 min and I think that would be possible. But then everything would have to fall into place on the day to succeed. Likely I would need to hang back a bit earlier to be as strong as possible climbing Constantia Nek and then run at tempo pace for the final 10km.
“But the strength of the women’s field is only going in one direction, and I think I will always have to go out hard (with the leading runners) to give me my best chance of winning. And that may count against going for my fastest time.”
Could Steyn conceive of reaching ten wins?
“We were unfortunate to miss two years during COVID – I might have been closer to ten by now! But when I won my first Two Oceans, I never envisaged winning ten – so I take it year by year.,” Steyn continued.
“I’m a bit older now (Steyn turned 36 last month) and don’t know how long I can perform at the highest level. But I felt pretty good today and feel I still have a few more years in me. So if the seven becomes eight and the eight becomes ten, then who knows?”
The first half of the race featured a significant break which saw ultra-marathon debutant, Zimbabwean Blessing Waison and Lesotho’s Tsepo Ramashamole race through halfway at the start of the Chapman’s Peak climb in 1:34:06, 2 min 14 sec clear of the large chasing pack.
When the gap had grown to almost three minutes approaching Hout Bay and was still over two minutes as the two leaders passed the standard marathon mark in 2:23:07, commentators were speculating on the first breakaway win at Two Oceans in many years.
Surprisingly it was the more favoured Lesotho athlete who was first to concede, dropping back on the long climb to Constantia Nek, and when a speedy trio of Seutloali, Khonkhobe and Jantjies had closed to just a minute behind Waison at the top of the climb 10km from home, the pending ‘catch’ looked certain.
It came 49km into the race, shortly before the athletes reached Kirstenbosch top gate from where Khonkhobe led into the fast descent, opening what appeared to be a winning gap on his rivals.
But while Seutloali and Waison fell out of contention, Jantjies fought back, overtaking the diminutive Nedbank athlete shortly before the 52km mark and opening a decisive lead on ‘Chet’s Hill’ on the final stretch towards home before racing to a remarkable victory.
Waison fought to the end to clinch an impressive third position behind Khonkhobe.
Despite Steyn’s fast start, it was Kenyan athlete, Rholux Jelimo Kogo, who held the early lead in the women’s race before Steyn led a five-strong pack which draw level with Kogo 25km into the race.
Tshuma pushed the pace through halfway with Steyn, Jepchumba and Ethiopian Bize Negasa on her shoulder at the start of the climb up Chapman’s Peak.
The quartet remained together for much of the climb until a Steyn surge in the final kilometre to the top of ‘Chappies’ saw Tshuma and Negasa fall behind.
But 45-year-old winner of last year’s Soweto Marathon, Jepchumba, stayed with Steyn over Chappies and through to the standard marathon mark, which the pair reached in 2:34:34, before being forced to slow her pace as the long climb up Constantia Nek began to bite.
While most of the male runners were grimacing on the steep climb, Steyn was smiling as she drew further away from her rivals, before cresting the Nek in 2:51:49 and racing clear to a 6-minute victory over Jepchumba.
Results: Totalsport Two Oceans Marathon 56km
Men
Women
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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.
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Nigerian sprinter Jude Okafor delivered a career-defining performance at the South Florida Invitational, clocking a new personal best of 46.96 seconds in the men’s 400 metres to dip below the 47-second mark for the first time.
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The milestone performance saw the VCU Track & Field junior finish third in Heat 2, further underlining his steady progression this outdoor season.
Breaking the 47-second barrier is widely regarded as a significant benchmark in the one-lap event, often separating emerging talents from elite-level contenders.
Okafor’s latest outing reflects a growing maturity in his race execution, combining controlled early pace with a strong finish down the home straight.
His ability to maintain form in the closing stages proved crucial, as he held off competition to secure a podium finish in his heat while setting a new personal standard.
The performance builds on a series of encouraging displays this season, with the Nigerian athlete showing consistency and resilience against quality collegiate competition.
His development has been closely tied to the structured training environment at VCU, where he continues to refine both his speed endurance and tactical approach to the 400 metres.
Beyond the immediate result, Okafor’s breakthrough signals his readiness to compete at a higher level as the outdoor campaign intensifies.
With upcoming meets offering further opportunities to improve, attention will now turn to whether he can lower his time even further and challenge for top finishes on a broader stage.
For Nigerian athletics, Okafor’s rise adds to a growing pool of emerging sprint talents making their mark internationally.
As the season progresses, his performances will be closely monitored, with expectations rising following this significant personal achievement.
Having crossed a key threshold in his career, Okafor now looks poised to build on this momentum and continue his upward trajectory in the 400 metres.
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Athletics
Kanyimo and Marais sparkle on the slopes of Devil’s Peak as trail running opens the Two Oceans weekend.
Zimbabwe-born Nedbank athlete, Colllin Kanyimo, regained his title in the Totalsports Two Oceans Long Trail Race over 24km this morning (Friday 10 April) while running doctor Ebeth Marais remains unbeaten in her re-launched trail-running career, taking the honours over a quality women’s field.
Almost 700 trail runners took part in perfect conditions in two races over 16km and 24km, returning a top-quality trail event to the Two Oceans Marathon bouquet of races over the weekend.
The challenging trail races started and finished on the UCT Green Mile and took place on the slopes of Devil’s Peak and Table Mountain. The Long Trail included much of the traditional route from the time it was first run in 2010, albeit in reverse direction.
The race started out with a circuit through Newlands Forest before reaching Kings Blockhouse along the contour path, racing past the Saddle via the Middle Traverse before returning to the UCT campus via the Lower Traverse.
Part of the trails, including the start and finish venue at UCT, will be used for next year’s World Mountain and Trail Championships and a high-level delegation of technical experts from World Athletics and its trail and mountain running partners were in attendance to assess aspects of the routes and the event logistics.
“So far we’re really pleased with what we have seen,” said World Athletics Running Project Manager, Brazilian Natacha Manchado.
“Cape Town’s a great place to host the championships and the mountain backdrop is stunning. Our technical experts are working closely with local trail organisers to ensure compliance with the championship guidelines and standards.”
For Kanyimo it was a case of many happy returns, having won the Two Oceans Long Trail Race in 2022 and the competitive 43km Cape Town Trail Marathon in 2024. And from the time he drew away from the lead group in Newlands Forest, 4km into the race, there was only going to be one winner, and he raced home in an impressive 2 hr 02 min 07 sec.
“My plan was to run away on the climbs, I am stronger there, down runs are difficult for me. These days I am specialising in road races. So, I know that I have speed. I pushed on the climb up to the contour path to open a big gap so I could relax when I reached the descents.”
Kanyimo drew steadily away from his rivals and was four minutes clear of 2026 Pass to Pass Marathon winner, Iain Peterkin, on the descent from the Saddle, two thirds into the race.
Siviwe Nkombi, who won the Pass to Pass 25km in February, finished strongly to overhaul Peterkin and claim second in 2:06:25 with Peterkin rounding out the podium a minute further back.
Leading Western Cape trail athlete, Mila Geldenhuys, took an early lead in the women’s race, climbing strongly to the contour path, before former Marais hauled her in at the King’s Blockhouse.
“I felt good,” Geldenhuys reflected. “But Ebeth was running so strongly it was impossible to stay with her. But I’m happy with second.”
Marais moved further away in the second half to cross the finish line at the UCT Green Mile in 2:18:03, 2 min 25 sec clear of Geldenhuys with Cape Town-based American Emily Djock third.
“I only started running trail more seriously last year,” Marais said. “I just love the Cape Town trails and knew that the route would be great, while the support along the way was amazing. It was unbelievable to cross the finish line first.”
Marais spends her working hours just a few hundred metres away from part of today’s route – she is working towards a neurological science specialisation at Groote Schuur Hospital. “But we never get any off time at lunch to train on those trails, it is far to busy for that,” Marais laughed.
Knysna-based former Whale of Trail double winner, Melikhaya Mzisi, won an exciting race in the 16km Short Trail, finishing in 1:18:12, just 44 seconds clear of Jonathan Black, while Louise Muller triumphed by 15 minutes over Elzanne Kuun in the women’s contest.
The post Kanyimo and Marais sparkle on the slopes of Devil’s Peak as trail running opens the Two Oceans weekend. appeared first on Sports Network Africa.
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