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 23^rd behind Elroy Gelant at the ASA Championships in Durban in 2024, 26^th position in 2:22:40 at the Cape Town Marathon later that year and 9^th 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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