Age Group World Championship Start List
Competition Records
Sanlam Cape Town Marathon Course Guide
More than 1,800 athletes from 85 nations will be racing on the Cape Town roads on Sunday hoping to become an AbbottWMM Marathon Tours & Travel Age Group World Champion.
Among them are 18 previous champions including seven who claimed gold in New York last November.
Returning champs
Seven champions from New York will be in Cape Town hoping to defend the titles they won in Central Park.
History beckons for Japan’s Mai Fujisawa who is going for her fifth title in succession. She will defend the 50-54 category she won in 2025.
American Gwen Jacobson, who won the women’s 65-69 category in 2024 and 2025, will be in Cape Town attempting to join Fujisawa by becoming only the second person to win a hat-trick of titles.
Elsewhere in the women's race, Andrea Simmons and Kate Stewart return to defend their 70-74 and 75-79 titles.
In the men’s field, 2025 champion Tom Van Ongeval set the fastest qualifying time in the 50-54 category and if he successfully defends his title it would be a third championship for the Belgian who also won in London in 2022.
Stephen Thoma, from the USA, and Japan’s Yoji Kawase, travel to South Africa having won the 55-59 and 75-79 categories in New York.
The speedsters
Canada’s Danny Morin set the fastest qualifying time for this year’s championships when he clocked an impressive 2:25:20 in the Hamilton Marathon.
He will run in a hugely competitive 40-44 category against Aleksei Silin, who finished the Istanbul Marathon in 2:26:11, and two-time winner Cesar Lizano, who represented Costa Rica in the London Olympics.
The Swiss runner finished the Zurich Marathon in 2:43:05, exactly five minutes quicker than the qualifying time achieved by Estefania Unzu Ripoli of Spain.
Closest category
Just three minutes and 14 seconds separates the top six qualifiers in the male 55-59 category.
Flavio De Simone, from the USA, ran 2:37:36 at the Mesa Marathon, which was just 34 seconds quicker than Uilia Pires Santos’ 2:38:08 in Porto Alegre in Brazil.
David Niv clocked 2:38:51 in Valencia, Gamini Sugathadasa qualified in 2:39:13 which was just 11 seconds quicker than Paul Jones of Great Britain.
Completing the group of six is last year’s winner Thoma, who qualified with a 2:40:50 effort.
What’s the course like?
The Cape Town Marathon is not just a race through one of the world’s most beautiful cities, it is a journey into the soul of South African running culture.
Few marathons can match Cape Town’s backdrop with Table Mountain’s towering presence and the Atlantic Ocean wrapping around the stunning coastline.
Add to this the city’s vibrant neighborhoods and you find this is a place of contrasts, with the marathon route providing runners with a front-row seat to all of it.
As the race edges closer to Abbott World Marathon Majors status, it is attracting increasing international attention, but according to South African running content creator and influencer Geoff Crow, it is not simply the scenery that makes this race unforgettable. “It’s not really the route that’s the feature of the marathon,” he explains. “It’s the coming together of the whole South African running community.”
Read our course guide with Geoff, who has run the Cape Town marathon four times.
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