Trust at the core as Two Oceans seeks redemption after 2025 disruptions

Trust. That is the key word for the organisers and other stakeholders of the Two Oceans Marathon heading into the 2026 edition of the “The World’s Most Beautiful Marathon”. The race takes place on 11 and 12 April, welcoming some of the best marathoners around.

But beyond following what will unfold in the race itself, an extra-large magnifying glass will be placed on the organisational side too.

The 2025 shenanigans

This is because the 2025 instalment of the race was fraught with frustration for the participants. The biggest battle the marathon faced came after the previous board jeopardised the race’s future by breaking the City of Cape Town’s event permit prescriptions.

There was also all-round dissatisfaction with how the 2025 race was organised. The grievances that runners raised included insufficient ablution facilities along the route, and limited water stations, which led to their overcrowding.

There was also a shortage of medals for runners who finished the race. This was a result of the permit breach, as the previous Two Oceans hierarchy allowed a few thousand more runners to line up at the starting line than the City had approved.

This reckless action had the City seething, and it reacted by pulling the plug on the sponsorship agreement it had in place with the Two Oceans. Previous chairperson Toni Cavanagh’s board fell apart in the aftermath, eventually resulting in an interim leadership structure being set up in July, as Cavanagh vacated her post.

New brooms on board

Two Oceans then held elections to set up a fresh leadership structure during an annual general meeting (AGM). The board took up office in October 2025 and hit the ground running in an attempt to mend broken ties with various stakeholders.

It helped greatly that Chris Goldschmidt, who had acted as the interim chairperson in the aftermath of the previous board’s dissolution, was elected as the full-time chairperson following last year’s elections. This allowed for continuity as Two Oceans leadership could continue mending broken ties across the board.

One of the key decisions taken by the interim board was the appointment of a staging partner to ensure that they did not bite off more they could chew in terms of organisation. They settled on Stillwater Sports – a Stellenbosch-based sports marketing and event management agency.

News24 recently reported that Stillwater was vying for this important partnership role with Golazo, an international sports marketing and event management company. However, the Two Oceans board opted for the locally based entity, with members of the previous board being disgruntled with this decision.

Now Stillwater and the current Two Oceans leadership will be under the spotlight as they aim to prove that their partnership will be fruitful for 2026 and beyond.

Trust regained

“Obviously, we made the decision to appoint Stillwater before the AGM. And then formalised that after the AGM. It took a little while to work through the details of the agreement and work out the governance elements, as well as how we would report to each other. So, that contract took a little bit of time to finalise,” Goldschmidt explained to Daily Maverick.

“But Stillwater got stuck in almost straight away, working on a lot of good faith [from the board]. That’s been the characteristic of everything we have done since then: working together, working in good faith and trusting each other,” the Two Oceans leader added.

“The word ‘trust’ is where this whole race has developed in the past six months. There was no trust in Two Oceans when we were elected in October. That trust has had to be repaired in a number of areas, not least with the City of Cape Town. Because they had lost faith in the Two Oceans Marathon and we had to prove to them that we can put on a big race in a way that satisfies all the regulations of the City,” he said.

“But now we’ve got the trust of the City back. We have the trust of sponsors back. We also have the trust of the runners back. They are starting to believe that this is a race that has been reimagined and repositioned. And we will deliver.”

Leading by example

Of course, the work that has been done behind the scenes is just the foundation – a solid one. The actual house will be built over the weekend and in the coming months as the running community reflects on their experiences in comparison to last year’s disastrous event.

As many as five Two Oceans board members will be running the ultramarathon on Sunday, 12 April. This includes veteran Wietse van der Westhuizen, who will be targeting a 36th finish in ultra. Other members of the board who will be leading by example include Stuart Mann, Caroline Newbert, Glenn Muller and Sandiswa Ndlebe.

“The new board has so much experience in running and they know what they want Two Oceans to be. We’ve got a couple hundred races in experience on the board, and half the board is running the race this weekend. So, there’s evidently a passion for the race,” said Goldschmidt.

The race will be broadcast on SABC 3 on Saturday and Sunday, with Athletics South Africa’s negotiations for a new broadcast with SuperSport still ongoing after the previous agreement recently lapsed. DM