CAPE TOWN

The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon has a longer history than many might think but the race name and substantial parts of the course have remained the same over the entire history of the event.

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.

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 again 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 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 1999 Frank Pooe made history by becoming the first person to win the Cape Town Marathon for a second time, 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.

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 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.

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 hit a new level when Ethiopian Asefa Mengistu Negewo ran the fastest ever marathon in Sub-Saharan Africa, clocking 2:08:41.

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.

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 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.

The 2025 race should have been the event’s final assessment but freak weather on the morning of the marathon forced organisers to cancel at short notice.

But, undeterred, the 2026 event was a huge success, headlined by Eliud Kipchoge, and it was confirmed in June that year that Cape Town would become the eighth Major.