Online Reporter
WITH a worldclass elite field that includes 13 men and eight women who have run faster than the current course records of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, the 2026 edition of the race is set to be the fastest ever.
The 32nd edition of the race takes place tomorrow, once again starting and finishing in Green Point, and the elite athletes will be racing not only for line honours and records, but also a share of the considerably increased prize purse.
This year’s race will see 27 000 runners lining up, including a field of world-class elite and wheelchair athletes.
A further 17 500 will take part in the accompanying 10km and 5km Peace Runs, as well as the Cape Town Trail Marathon, 22km and 11km trail runs, which take place today.
That means a combined field of 44 500 participants, making this one of the largest running events on the African continent.
The stacked men’s elite field includes eight athletes who have run a 2:05 marathon or faster, including Eliud Kipchoge, the former two-time World Record-holder, two-time Olympic Marathon champion and winner of 17 international marathons.
The current men’s course record is 2:08:16, set by Ethiopia’s Abdisa Tola in 2024, and 13 men in the field have run faster than that in their careers, with 10 of them having done so in the last year.
The women’s course record is 2:22:22, run by South Africa’s Glenrose Xaba in 2024, which set not only a new South African record, but was also the fastest women’s time run on African soil.
In the 2026 women’s elite field, five athletes have run faster than 2:20 and another three have clocked a 2:20 time, while four of those athletes have gone faster than the current course record in the past year.
The men’s field includes three World Athletics Platinum Label and six Gold Label athletes, while the women’s field features four Platinum Label and six Gold Label athletes.
The Marathon will also once again feature a star-studded wheelchair race, with 12 men and nine women participating, and the race has also been selected to host the 2026 Abbott World Marathon Majors Marathon Tours and Travel Age Group World Champs, which will see around 1 800 of the best age group marathoners from around the world competing for global titles in five-year age categories from 40-44 to over 80 years.
Having Label and wheelchair athletes in the race are both part of the list of requirements the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is required to meet in its bid to become Africa’s first Major.
The event is currently nearing the end of phase 2 of the candidacy process to become an Abbott World Marathon Majors (AbbottWMM) race, which would put it on par with iconic New York, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo, Sydney and London Marathons.
In the meantime, finishers of the race will be awarded a provisional AbbottWMM finisher’s star, which will be officially recognised when Cape Town becomes a Major.
“We have assembled the best marathon elite and wheelchair fields the African continent has ever seen, led by the best marathon runner of all time, Eliud Kipchoge, alongside world class World Athletics Label athletes and a number of South African legends of the sport and stars of the future,” said Clark Gardner, CEO of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon.
“With so many starters who have run faster times than our course records, we feel confident that the record books will need updating after this year’s race.
“We also take pride in being given the opportunity to host 8 500 international participants and their families from 145 countries, including 1 800 of the world’s best age group marathon runners.
“To deliver on this opportunity, our organising team has worked tirelessly, hand-in-hand with all our sponsors, partners and service providers, to present not just a fast race, but also one with a healthy mix of African spirit. We’re looking forward to an incredible race on Sunday as we take the final steps towards becoming Africa’s first Major,” added Gardner.
Given his stellar record and achievements over the marathon distance, many eyes will be focused on Kipchoge in tomorrow’s race.
He also comes into the race as the fastest man in the field, thanks to his personal best (PB) of 2:01:09, and at 41, he is still posting world-class times – his season best (recent) time is the 2:05:25 he clocked in London last year.
This makes Kipchoge one of the fastest runners on current form in the Cape Town field, with only Mohamed Esa (Ethiopia) having gone faster – 2:04:49 in the 2025 Chicago Marathon – while another Kenyan, Benard Kipkurui Biwott, has an identical season best to Kipchoge.
Esa’s PB of 2:04:39 makes him the second-fastest man in the field historically, so he will line up as one of the outright favourites for the win.
The fastest man in the field who has run the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon before is Ethiopian Adane Gebre Kebede, who is one five athletes with a 2:06 personal best.
He won in Cape Town in 2023 with a 2:11:28, then finished second in 2024 in 2:08:32 (behind the record-setting Tola).
The elite women’s race may see the Ethiopian trio of Ruti Aga (PB 2:18:09), Dera Dida (2:18:32) and Mestawat Fikir (2:18:48) play a leading role in determining the podium positions, especially if they decide to work together.
Dida is the fastest of the three on recent form, having run her 2:18 in Dubai last year, compared to 2:20 for Fikir and 2:22 for Aga earlier this year.
In terms of Majors pedigree, Fikir has won Paris and finished second in Berlin, Dida has finished second in both Paris and Berlin, while Aga has won Tokyo and finished on the podium in Berlin and New York.
However, the Ethiopians will need to watch the two highly-experienced and very fast veterans in the field.
Lonah Salpeter is the fastest woman in the field on paper, having clocked 2:17:45 when she won the Tokyo Marathon in 2020.
The other is Kenyan Edna Kiplagat (2:19:50), the two-time World Marathon Champion in 2010 and 2011, and Boston Marathon winner in 2017.
Although now 47 years old, she can still compete with the best in the world. Salpeter clocked 2:23:45 late last year in Valencia, while Kiplagat posted a 2:25 in Abu Dhabi last year.
Others to watch include Bahrain’s Desi Jisa Mokonin (2:20:07) and Ethiopia’s Waganesh Mekasha (2:20:26), who both set their best times last year.
While there are no South African women in the elite field, some local flavour will be added by Zimbabwean Fortunate Chidzivo, who has called Cape Town home for many years.
She showed good form recently in finishing second in the Totalsports Two Oceans half-marathon, and is the only elite female athlete in the field with previous experience of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, having finished sixth in 2016.
The wheelchair division will see a combined field of 12 men and nine women lining up tomorrow, including two former men’s winners in Cape Town, Japan’s Sho Watanabe (2024) and Dutchman Geert Schipper (2023). Watanabe has been in good form, posting a 1:28:50 in Berlin last year to give him the fastest season best time in this field, but his countryman Hiroki Nishida was just four seconds adrift in that same race. – supersport.com.
