The elite field for the 2025 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon on Sunday will include some of the world’s fastest marathoners, including two men who have dipped under 2hr 05min, 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.
This all points to fast times and the current course records being bettered in this 32nd edition of the race. The current course records were both set in 2024, with Abdisa Tola of Ethiopia clocking 2:08:15 in the men, while the women’s record now stands at 2:22:22, run by South Africa’s Glenrose Xaba. Tola’s course record has brought the record within touching distance of improving the long-standing South African All-comers record 2:08:04 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 by Stephen Mokoka in the 2018 Cape Town Marathonr.
In contrast, Xaba’s winning time last year in Cape Town not only shattered the women’s SA record, but her time also became the fastest women’s time ever run in both South Africa and on the African continent.
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 in 2023. Next best is his countryman Bethwell Chumba Kibet, with a 2:04:37 PB set in Amsterdam 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, the fastest runner in this field becomes South Africa’s Gelant, with his SA record 2:05:36 run in Hamburg in April this year.
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 second in the Tokyo Marathon. 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 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. 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, was second in Kigali and seventh in Tokyo, so she could go much faster 2:35 in Cape Town.
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 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.
A number of wheelchair athletes have returned to Cape Town to contest the men’s wheelchair division, including defending champion
Sho Watanabe of Japan, and 2023 winner Geert Schipper of the Netherlands. Michelle Wheeler of the USA returns to defend her women’s title in the wheelchair division, which she won in 2:03:22. The only other returning entrant is Yeni Aide Hernandez Mendieta of Mexico, who finished fourth in Cape Town last year in 2:23:00.
Photo: Chris Hitchcock
