World Class Field Promises Fast Times at Sanlam Cape Town Marathon

The elite field for the 2025 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon on Sunday 19 October will include some of the world’s fastest marathoners, including two men who have dipped under 2:05, four that have gone sub-2:06, and another four that have broken 2:07. The women’s field includes one athlete each with a 2:16, 2:17 or 2:18 to her name, and two more who have run a 2:19. This all points to fast times and the current course records being bettered in this 32^nd edition of the race.

The current course records were both set in 2024, with men’s winner Abdisa Tola of Ethiopia clocking 2:08:15, while the women’s record now stands at 2:22:22, run by South Africa’s own Glenrose Xaba. Tola’s course record has brought the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon within touching distance of improving the longstanding South African All-comers Record (the fastest time ever run on SA soil), which remains the 2:08:04 posted by Zithulele Sinqe in Port Elizabeth in 1986, but this was on a downhill (aided) course and is not considered for record purposes. The fastest time ever by a South African on a record-eligible course on SA soil is the 2:08:31 winning time by Stephen Mokoka in the 2018 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, which was also the course record until last year.

In contrast, Xaba’s winning time last year in Cape Town not only shattered the women’s SA Record, taking a minute and 41 seconds off the previous national mark of 2:24:03, run by Gerda Steyn in Valencia (Spain) in 2023, but her time also became the fastest women’s time ever run in both South Africa and on the African continent.

This year’s men’s and women’s elite fields each feature four World Athletics Platinum Label and five Gold Label athletes. The international governing body of road running, World Athletics, categorises races with its Label system, with Platinum being the most prestigious, requiring the highest quality elite fields, international broadcast coverage, and exceptional race standards. The next tier is Gold, which requires only slightly less stringent but still exceptional criteria. Athletes are also ranked in a similar tier system, and events at Platinum and Gold level must feature a minimum required number of these athletes in order to qualify for that label.

This also forms part of the list of requirements the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon elite is required to meet in its bid to become Africa’s first Major. The event is currently in phase 2 of the candidacy process to become an Abbott World Marathon Majors race, which would put it in the same bracket as the iconic New York, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo, Sydney and London Marathons.

Men’s Race Set for Fireworks

The athlete with the fastest personal best (PB) time in the men’s field is Ronald Korir of Kenya, who clocked 2:04:22 in Berlin (Germany) in 2023. Next best is his countryman Bethwell Chumba Kibet, with a 2:04:37 PB set in Amsterdam (Netherlands) in 2023. They are followed on the list by Morocco’s Othmane El Goumri (2:05:12 in 2023), South Africa’s Elroy Gelant (2:05:36 in 2025), Ethiopia’s Asefa Boki Kebebe (2:05:40 in 2024), and Kenya’s Justus Kangogo (2:05:57 in 2023).

However, when you look at these athlete’s season best times for 2025, or in the past year or so, then the ordering changes substantially. Then the fastest runner in this field becomes South Africa’s Gelant, with his SA Record 2:05:36 run in Hamburg (Germany) in April this year. Korir is now second with a 2:05:41, followed by El Goumri’s 2:06:07. Moving into fourth on the list is Lesotho’s Tebello Ramakongoana, who set a national record of 2:06:18 earlier this year in the Xiamen Marathon in China, and he is followed by Chumba Kibet (2:06:26) and Boki Kebebe (2:06:32).

Other leading contenders include Zimbabwean national record-holder Isaac Mpofu (PB 2:06:48 in 2022, and who was seventh in Cape Town in 2021 with a solid 2:11:41), Luke Kiprop of Kenya (2:06:39 PB last year in Berlin), and Germany’s Hendrik Pfeiffer (2:07:14 PB last year in Houston, USA). The South African contingent features Adam Lipshitz, who ran his best of 2:08:54 in Valencia late last year, and posted a 2:09:48 in London (United Kingdom) earlier this year. And of course, one cannot forget Stephen Mokoka, a former three-time winner of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, whose PB of 2:06:42 came as recently as 2023 (Osaka, Japan), and whose 2:08:31 in 2018 in Cape Town remains the fastest time run by a South African on a record-legal course on home soil. In spite of turning 40 at the beginning of this year, he remains a strong contender in this race.

Exciting Women’s Race Expected

Looking at the women’s field a similar comparison also shows a marked difference between personal bests and current form. Historically, the fastest women in the field is Kenya’s Winfridah Moraa Moseti, with a PB 2:16:56 that she set earlier this year when finishing second in the Tokyo Marathon in Japan. The athlete with a 2:17 to her name is Angela Tanui of Kenya, but her PB dates back to 2021, when she clocked 2:17:57 in Amsterdam, and her most recent performance was finishing third in Paris (France) this year in 2:21:07.

Next on the contenders list is Ethiopian Meseret Belete, with a 2:18:21 PB run in Amsterdam in 2023. Her best time this year is 2:24:08, which saw her win the Daegu Marathon in South Korea. The two athletes with 2:19s to their name are the two Ethiopians, Meseret Abebayehu (2:19:50 in 2023) and Mare Dibaba (2:19:52 in 2012). Abebayehu’s best this year has been a relatively pedestrian 2:35:40, but last year she won in Dongying (China), was second in Kigali (Rwanda) and seventh in Tokyo, so she could go much faster 2:35 in Cape Town.

Dibaba’s 2:19:52 PB dates back more than a decade, and even though she was World Champion in 2015 and the bronze medallist in the Olympic Marathon in 2016, her most recent 2:27:49 in Xiamen does not point to her being a leading contender now in Cape Town, but she remains one to watch. This year she has finished third in Jilin and fifth in Xiamen (both in China), and last year she was second here in the Mother City, finishing just 14 seconds behind winner Glenrose Xaba (and also well within the old course record of 2:24:02), in a year that also saw her win the Wuhan Marathon and claim the runner-up position in Shenzen (both in China).

Other contenders to look out for could be Ethiopians Amid Fozya Jemal (PB 2:21:53, season best 2:29:13) and Meseret Gebre (PB 2:23:11, season best 2:27:02), and Kenyans Joan Kipyatich (PB 2:23:45, season best 2:47:37 – who was eighth in Cape Town last year in 2:28:45) and Mercy Kwambai (PB 2:23:58, which is also her season best in 2025). From a South African perspective, the leading contender will once again be Gerda Steyn, who until last year’s race in Cape Town was the SA Record-holder with her 2:24:03 from 2023. She ran a 2:28:14 in December last year in Valencia, and following her two customary ultra-marathon wins earlier this year at the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon and Comrades Marathon, Steyn may be looking to use Cape Town to get back up to marathoning speed. Her best showing in Cape Town was fourth place in 2021, with a 2:26:25 finishing time.

Pacesetters for Men’s Race

Tebello Ramakongoana (Lesotho)

Samachw Sewnet (Ethiopia)

Victor Kiplimo Sawe (Kenya)

Vincent Kimaiyo (Kenya)

Pacesetters for Women’s Race

Muhammed Husen (Ethiopia)

Nicolas Kipkosgei Cheromei (Keya)

Men’s Wheelchair Field

Geert Schipper (Netherlands)

Sho Watanabe (Japan)

Rafael Botello Jimenez (Spain)

Michael McCabe (United Kingdom)

Kota Hokinoue (Japan)

Lito King Anker (Netherlands)

Hiroki Nishida (Japan)

Tiaan Bosch (South Africa)

Women’s Wheelchair Field

Vanessa Cristina De Souza (Brazil)

Michelle Wheeler (USA)

Marie Emmanuelle Anais Noemi Alphonse (Mauritius)

Hannah Babalola (USA)

Yeni Aide Hernandez Mendieta (Mexico)

Rita Cuccuru (Italy)

Lucia Montenegro (Argentina)

Chelsea Stein (USA)