Cape Town Marathon bounces back with Kipchoge and World Major ambitions

Double Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge touched down in Cape Town on Tuesday 19 May before his first official marathon race on African soil at the Cape Town Marathon this weekend.

The iconic 42.2km race, one of the biggest running events on the continent, returns on Sunday 24 May after last year’s edition was cancelled moments before the start because of dangerous wind conditions.

In a move aimed partly at avoiding a repeat of that scenario, organisers shifted the race from its traditional October slot to May, hoping for calmer and faster conditions.

This is according to Clark Gardner, the chief executive of the Cape Town Marathon.

The race is also the first stop of Kipchoge’s ‘Eliud’s Running World’ tour, a two-year project that will see him tackle a series of seven marathons across all the continents, to inspire healthier lifestyles and unite people through running.

After enduring a torrid time after last year’s cancellation, Kipchoge’s participation has brought much excitement and anticipation to the race.

His presence will naturally raise the status and global appeal of the Cape Town Marathon.

Major Marathon ambitions

And they will need it as the race is now a candidate for Abbott World Marathon Majors status.

There are currently seven marathons in the elite club – New York, London, Berlin, Tokyo, Boston, Chicago and Sydney – but none are hosted in Africa.

Cape Town hopes to become the first on the continent.

Last year’s cancellation interrupted what was meant to be the race’s second consecutive successful evaluation in its candidacy process.

According to Gardner, the race needs at least three years of assessments, with two consecutive years needing to pass all 104 evaluation criteria.

At this stage, the Cape Town Marathon is a provisional Major that requires the race to pass stage two in May for all participants to be recognised retroactively as having run a Major.

Despite fears that last year’s forced abandonment had derailed those ambitions, Gardner said the organisers of the Majors were “incredibly supportive and understanding”.

“They decided to award us a provisional star despite the cancellation,” he said.

Achieving World Major status would have significant economic benefits for the city and country, said Gardner.

“The local and international tourists alone this year will result in R600-million of economic impact,” he said. “That is before we account for the 200 small businesses we use at the event and the 2,500 people working on the event weekend.

“This year we have 8,500 international participants, of which 960 are from the rest of Africa, and another 1,000 or so of supporters.”

Lessons learned

Last year, the Cape Town Marathon, which was meant to take place on 19 October, was cancelled at the 11th hour following gusts of wind damaging structures before the start gun could be fired.

Many athletes, including elite runners such as Gerda Steyn, were either on their way to the venue or already at the starting point and warming up when the announcement was made.

So far for this year, there was no reason for concern, said Gardner. The decision to move the race to May was intentional in this regard.

“The October date had never delivered great marathon weather conditions, not once,” said Gardner. “We instead moved to late May, which statistically produces better marathon conditions.

“The advantages included attracting some of the best elite marathon runners in the world and having a chance to post extremely fast marathon times owing to fair weather.”

Many participants were furious last year, especially as the wind died down very soon after the race was called off, with many opting to still run the route.

However, Gardner and his team remained steadfast in their decision to cancel, and said they made sure to learn from the experience.

“We most certainly didn’t waste a good crisis,” he said. “As hard as it is to accept that we disappointed 24,000 participants, we did make sure we learnt from the experience.”

In preparation for the upcoming race weekend, the organisers have installed weather measurements with video coverage and developed a series of contingency plans.

“We monitor the conditions very closely and have weather stations at multiple points on the route,” said Gardner.

The mitigation plans include two different starts, two different finishes as well as 11 possible route diversions.

“We have clear metrics that determine key decisions and mitigation plans and multiple teams prepared to take different types of action in different scenarios,” he said.

Record-breaking times expected

The 42.2km race on Sunday will begin at the DHL Stadium in Cape Town at 8am for the elite men and women.

According to the race organisers, the event has attracted a combined 44,500 entries, including 27,000 marathon runners lining up on Sunday morning.

A further 17,500 athletes will take part in the accompanying 10km and 5km Peace Runs, as well as the Cape Town 22km and 11km trail runs, which take place on Saturday, 23 May.

Gardner described the event as a massive logistical operation involving more than 30 permanent staff members, 2,500 event workers, 450 security officers, 16km of fencing, 4,000 traffic cones and more than 100,000 litres of hydration.

Alongside Kipchoge, unbeaten Kenyan marathon runner Benard Biwott will compete in the men’s elite field, while two-time world marathon champion Edna Kiplagat, also from Kenya, is one of the headlining athletes in the women’s elite race.

With cooler May conditions and the decreased likelihood of Cape Town’s notorious southeasterly winds expected to favour faster racing, Gardner suggested both course records – 2:08:16 (men) and 2:22:22 (women) – could be broken this year.

“We are hoping for 2:06 for the men and 2:19 for the women, which will be the fastest recorded marathon times on the African continent.” DM