Sanlam Cape Town Marathon Elites Set to Take Major Step Up in 2025

With the promise that the event is one step away from gaining Abbott World Marathon Majors status in 2026, the 2025 edition of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon takes place this Sunday, 19 October, with a new dual-start using two venues in Green Point. The elite field is once again stacked with world-class talent, including athletes who have won or finished on the podium in some of the world’s most iconic marathons, and now they are in the Mother City for what has quickly grown into one of the world’s major destinations on the global marathon calendar.

“This is the best and strongest field the African continent has ever seen, with eight Platinum Label athletes and 10 Gold Label athletes, and they will play their part in us bringing the first Abbott World Marathon Majors race to the African continent. Given the quality of athletes that we are now attracting, I think that the race records may be broken again this year, as we saw happen in 2024,” says Clark Gardner, Chief Executive Officer of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon.

“This is a very special occasion and we are privileged to be the hosts of this race, but we also understand the responsibility we have to develop running on this continent, to give more African runners the opportunity to race at that level,” adds Gardner. “You can also see that in our South African field, especially the men’s race, where we have all of the local men who can currently run under sub-2:10. This is all part of the journey that we have been on to become an Abbott World Marathon Majors event.”

Action-Packed Weekend Ahead

The running action gets underway on Saturday, 18 October, with the five shorter distance events that form part of a festival weekend of running at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon. The 43km Trail Marathon starts first at 6am, followed by the 22km Trail Run at 6:45am and the 11km Trail Run at 7:45am. While the trail runners head up on to the slopes of Table Mountain and its neighbouring peaks, the road athletes will line up for the 10km Peace Run, starting at 7am, followed by the 5km Peace Run at 8am.

Sunday’s marathon action begins with the inspirational Peace Flame Ceremony at 5:55am, and then the Wheelchair Invitational race sets off at 6:10am, followed by the Elite start at 6:15am. The rest of the marathon field will then start in five waves – three in Fritz Sonnenberg Road next to the DHL Stadium, and two in Beach Road, near the Mouille Point Lighthouse – from 6:17am until 6:58am.

A total of 41,000 athletes will be in running action over the weekend, with 24,000 lining up in the marathon, so to minimise congestion on the roads and trails, and to ensure the safety of all participating athletes, all events on the programme will feature staggered wave starts. Thanks to chip-timing technology, athletes will not lose time if starting in a later batch, as each wave will be timed separately.

Men’s Race Set for Fireworks

On paper, the fastest men in the elite field are Kenyans Ronald Korir (PB 2:04:22) and Bethwell Chumba Kibet (2:04:37), but both set their best times in 2023, and this year the fastest man in the field is actually South Africa’s Elroy Gelant. In April, he set a new SA Record of 2:05:36 in Hamburg, but Korir is not far behind with a season best 2:05:41, while Chumba Kibet has run a 2:06:26 this year. “I think I have grown over the years and matured as a runner,” says Gelant. “When I started my last Cape Town Marathon, I had a 2:12 and went down to 2:10. Since then I have improved to 2:05, and I think I have reached the stage where maybe I understand the marathon better, and love that feeling of running a marathon. I think when you get to the stage of understanding it, even loving it, then things really start to come together.”

Others to look out for are Morocco’s Othmane El Goumri, Ethiopia’s Asefa Boki Kebebe, and Kenya’s Justus Kangogo, while Lesotho’s Tebello Ramakongoana, who set a national record of 2:06:18 earlier this year, has stated his intention to push to the finish once his official pacesetting duties to the 30km mark are fulfilled.

The elite field also features all six South African men currently racing professionally that have run a sub-2:10 marathon, with Gelant joined by Adam Lipschitz, Stephen Mokoka, Melikhaya Frans, Thabang Mosiako and Desmond Mokgobu. The evergreen Mokoka, a former three-time winner of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, and whose 2:08:31 in the 2018 Cape Town Marathon remains the fastest time run by a South African on a record-legal course on home soil, says that he would dearly love a fourth win. “I’ve run the Shanghai Marathon five times and won it four times, finishing second in the other one, so this is my fifth Cape Town Marathon, and I have won it three times and finished second as well… so I am hoping that I can repeat history here.”

Exciting Women’s Race Expected

In the women’s elite field, the athlete with the fastest PB is Kenya’s Winfridah Moraa Moseti, with a best of 2:16:56, set earlier this year when she finished second in the Tokyo Marathon in Japan. She should face a strong challenge from fellow Kenyan Angela Tanui, who has run a 2:17:57, and who finished third in this year’s Paris Marathon. Ethiopian Meseret Belete is another one to watch on Sunday, while her countrywoman Mare Dibaba, the 2015 World Champion and 2016 Olympic bronze medallist in the women’s marathon, has shown that she still has plenty of speed left in her legs. Last year in Cape Town, Dibaba pushed South Africa’s Glenrose Xaba to a new SA Record and African All-comers Record of 2:22:22, and her own 2:22:36 is currently the second-fastest time ever run on the continent.

Leading the South African challenge this year will once again be Gerda Steyn, who until last year’s race in Cape Town was the SA Record-holder (2:24:03) and finished fourth here in Cape Town in 2021. While she has focused on the two big SA ultra-marathons in recent years, winning the 56km Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon six times and the 90km Comrades Marathon four times, she says she is proud to be lining up once again in the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon. “It is an honour to be here, lining up as a South African in a great South African race against such a high-quality field, and I cannot wait for Sunday. I’m sure it’s going to be a fast, high-class race, and to be part of something so big just fills me with immense pride.

“I remember my 2021 race like it was yesterday… telling myself on the start line to run with gratitude that we can have a race like this on home soil. That day I was just carried along by the support of the crowds, and I am looking forward to experiencing that again this year. Of course, the race has grown since then, so I am also looking forward to seeing how different it might be this year. In the years since 2021, I have watched the race on television, and I can see the huge impact that it has had on the South African running community,” adds Steyn.

Speaking about the stacked elite fields, Tom Brown, the Senior Brand Director at adidas, official technical partner, says, “adidas takes immense pride in partnering with some of the world’s leading athletes, and we are thrilled that a few of them will be participating in the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon in 2025. Top international names to compete include Justus Kangogo and Angela Tanui, and they will be joined by two of South Africa’s most loved and respected local athletes, Gerda Steyn and Adam Lipschitz.”

Returning Stars in Wheelchair Division

A number of wheelchair athletes have returned to Cape Town to contest the wheelchair division, including the men’s defending champion, Sho Watanabe of Japan, and 2024 women’s winner Michelle Wheeler of the USA. Watanabe is once again expected to go wheel to wheel with Dutchman Geert Schipper, winner of the 2023 race and course record-holder, who pushed the Japanese athlete all the way to the finish last year in a dramatic sprint for the line. “In spite of last year’s win, I think I will face Sunday’s race as a challenger instead of the defending champion, and if we have another sprint finish, I hope I can win it again,” says Watanabe, while Schipper says, “I’m just going to go fast right from the start, because I’m a pretty tall, heavy guy, so accelerating in a sprint is harder for me than for Sho!”

Wheeler looks the class act of the women’s field, but may face a tough challenge from last year’s fourth-place finisher, Yeni Aide Hernandez Mendieta of Mexico, who won the Paris Marathon earlier this year. Wheeler says, “I’m so glad to be back, because last year, when I got off the plane, it just felt like being at home. The support of the volunteers and the crowds really helped me along, and I’m looking forward to that again.”

Massive Prize Purse on Offer

The men’s and women’s overall winners will each take home 25,000 US Dollars, with second place earning $15,000 and third taking $10,000. The open category prize money goes down to 10^th place, while the top three in the 40-49, 50-59, 60-69 and 70+ categories also earn prize money. An incentive of $15,000 is on offer for a new course record, while a new SA Record will net the successful athlete an extra $10,000. In the wheelchair division, the winner will take home $8000, followed by $4000 for second and $3000 for third, with prize money down to fifth place.

With the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon now a globally recognised World Athletics Label race, the top tier prize money is paid in US Dollars, whereas other prize categories are paid in Rands. As such, the first South African man and woman over the line in the marathon will take home R25,000, followed by R12,500 for second and R7500 for third. The first Western Province athlete to finish will earn R3000, followed by R2000 for second and R1000 for third.

Working on an exchange rate of R17,50 to the US Dollar, the total prize purse available in the marathon (including wheelchair division) is R3,385,000, with a further R875,000 in incentive bonuses for course or national records. When one adds this total to the prize money in the accompanying 10km Peace Run (R45,500) and the three Peace Trail Runs (43km, 22km and 11km), which will pay out a combined R217,000, the total prize purse of the event comes to a massive R4,522,500.

Catch the Racing Action Live

The 2025 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon will be broadcast live in South Africa by SuperSport, from 05h50 until 11h00, and the broadcast will be carried through to various countries around the world by several partner broadcasters.