History of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon

The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon has a longer history than many might think, thanks to being held at different venues, organised by different entities, and sponsored by various commercial partners. However, the race name and substantial parts of the course have remained the same over the 32-year history of the event.

Three separate phases can be identified in the history of the event:

• 1994 – 2004: Held in February at Mutual Park (Pinelands), organised by Celtic Harriers, with Old Mutual as initial title sponsor, later replaced by Good Hope FM, Powerade and Asics.
• 2005 – 2013: Held in September and organised under the curatorship of Athletics South Africa and Western Province Athletics, with initially the Grand Parade and then Green Point as the race venue, and with Nedbank sponsorship some of those years.
• 2014 – present day: Held in September, later October, and organised by ASEM Running and Faces, with Green Point as venue and Sanlam as title sponsor.

The first edition of the race in 1994 was won by Julian Paul with a time of 2:26:45, while Evelina Tshabalala claimed the inaugural women’s title in 2:55:49. The following year, an incentive prize of a new car for a 2:18 (men) or 2:50 (women) finishing time saw Esme Koopman claim the car with her 2:48:46 winning effort, while men’s winner Soulman Nakedi had to be content with 2:20:30 course record.

With the race having quickly become the premier marathon in the Western Province, it was selected to host the South African Marathon Championships in 1996, an honour it was to retain from 1997 to 2000 (and once again be honoured with in 2014, 2018, 2019 and 2021). That first National Champs race in 1996 is the most famous, as it saw Josiah Thugwane win selection for the Olympic Marathon later that year in Atlanta, USA. His winning time of 2:11:46 was actually not fast enough to make him one of the three outright fastest qualifiers from South Africa – he needed to beat Laurence Peu’s 2:11:14 – but the selectors rewarded Thugwane for his commitment to racing the National Championships and recognised that the windy conditions had slowed him on the day. Of course, Thugwane more than justified his selection when he won the Olympic Marathon gold medal!

In its 32-year history, the Cape Town Marathon has seen a total of 26 men’s and 26 women’s winners. This is because a number of athletes have managed to win the race more than once, with Frank Pooe the first man to record a second win in 1999, a feat emulated by Gwen van Lingen a year later in the women’s race. Van Lingen went on to become the first three-time winner in 2005, and that achievement has subsequently been repeated by Zimbabwean Samukeliso Moyo and SA’s Stephen Mokoka. The full list of multiple winners is:

Men

3 Stephen Mokoka (South Africa) – 2018, 2021, 2022

2 Frank Pooe (South Africa) – 1998, 1999

2 Sihle Mapukata (South Africa) – 2003, 2004

2 Asefa Negewo (Ethiopia) – 2016, 2017

Women

3 Gwen van Lingen (South Africa) – 1999, 2000, 2005

3 Samukeliso Moyo (Zimbabwe) – 2007, 2008, 2013

2 Esme Koopman (South Africa) – 1995, 2004

 

A New Era Begins

In 2014 the event was taken over by ASEM Running, and later Faces, with Sanlam coming on board as title sponsor. Cape Town’s premier marathon now began to step onto the world stage, with top talent from around the world being brought to race in the Mother City. The 2014 event also saw the addition of the Sanlam 10km Peace Run as well as two Peace Trail Runs over 22km and 11km, and in 2021 a 44km Marathon Trail Run was added to the event programme. All of these extra races have attracted further world-class talent to the Cape Town Marathon event.

That 2014 race saw Kenya’s Willy Kibor Koitile (2:10:44) and Ethiopian Meseret Mengistu (2:31:00) breaking the men’s and women’s race records, but in 2016, the event truly leapt into the world of mega-marathons when Ethiopian Asefa Mengistu Negewo ran the fastest ever marathon in Sub-Saharan Africa, clocking 2:08:41 to also give the event its first sub-2:10. Two years later, in 2018, the race also had its first sub-2:30 women’s time as Namibia’s Helalia Johannes took line hours in 2:29:28, but more was to come. The 2019 race saw Kenyan Celestine Chepchirchir cross the line in 2:26:44, the fastest time ever run by a woman on the African continent. Since then, the course record has been lowered to 2:08:16 by Ethiopian Abdisa Tola (2024), while the women’s record now stands at 2:22:22, run by South Africa’s own Glenrose Xaba in 2024, and that is also the current SA Record for women.

The COVID pandemic forced the 2020 race to be run with unique limitations. While thousands of would-be entrants could only run the marathon as a virtual challenge (anywhere in the world), three small groups of elite runners totalling 43 athletes lined up in Cape Town, Pretoria and Potchefstroom for a unique marathon challenge, with the athletes running together in time, if not in place. Edward Mothibi took the overall men’s title with a 2:16:48 effort in Potchefstroom, while Annie Bothma took the women’s title with her 2:33:35 run in Cape Town. (To level the playing fields between those athletes running at altitude and those at sea-level, a handicap time was applied to those running in Pretoria and Potchefstroom, leaving Mothibi the clear winner in an adjust time of 2:13:12.)

Having achieved IAAF Silver Label status in 2014, the event then became the first African marathon to achieve IAAF Gold Label status in 2017. Better was to come, when in 2021 it was announced that the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon had been officially confirmed as an Abbott World Marathon Majors candidate race – the first marathon in Africa to be nominated for this prestigious accolade – which would see the race stand alongside the biggest and best marathons in the world, such as New York, London, Paris and Tokyo. The race obtained a pass for stage one of the candidacy process in 2024, having met all 104 criteria requirements, and is now busy with stage two of the process.

The 2022 race saw the introduction of the first top-flight wheelchair marathon on the continent, with American Aaron Pike winning the men’s race after breaking away from South African Ernst van Dyk shortly before halfway, while Brazilian Vanessa de Souza outsprinted African champion, Noemi Alphonse, by a whisker to win the women’s race in a photo-finish. The wheelchair race has added an incredible new dimension to the event, and the route has even been adapted here and there to make it more wheelchair-friendly.

After a hugely successful 2024 race, including that new SA Record by Glenrose Xaba, the 2025 race looked set for even faster times, thanks to the deepest field ever assembled for a marathon on African soil. However, after perfect running conditions on the Saturday for the Peace Runs and Trail Runs, severe winds overnight wreaked havoc in the race venue in Green Point, and at various points along the route. This damaged or destroyed vital race infrastructure, without which the marathon could not be safely held, so the marathon had to be cancelled at short notice, but thanks to title sponsor, Sanlam, the 24,000 disappointed entrants were quickly offered a free entry for either the 2026 or 2027 marathon.

Throughout its history, there has been a strong cooperative partnership between the City of Cape Town and the Cape Town Marathon, each party recognising the added value the other brings. The economic benefits to the City have increased year on year, and now that the race is on the cusp of becoming Africa’s first ‘Major’ as part of the Abbott World Marathon Majors series, the event is set to become Cape Town’s biggest economic event asset.