Just under 1,000 runners kicked off a weekend of running in the Mother City as they hit the trails on the slopes of Signal Hill in near perfect conditions for the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon 22km Peace Trail Run.

Trail action

Teboho Noosi and Bianca Tarboton not only successfully defended their titles but both broke their own course records, with Noosi making it a hat trick of wins. Noosi left his competitors and hammered the pace throughout the race to eventually finish in 1:25.40 – some 2 minutes and 50 seconds inside his course record of 1:28.30 set in 2017.

Showing her class, Bianca Tarboton raced away with the women’s race. She took control early on in the race and extended her lead to come home in 1:45.31, taking 29 seconds off her record from 2018. Landi Greyling secured second place, with triathlete, Vicky van der Merwe rounding out the top three.

The 12km Peace Trail run was won by Admire Rushika and Lijan van Niekerk in the men’s and women’s races respectively.

Fast and flat Peace run

For those runners looking for a less rugged run, the 10km Peace Run at the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon offered a fast and flat course.

Some 8,500 runners lined up for the race, where Precious Mashele flew home to defend his title in 28:36. Mashele surged away at the 6km. Mashele held off a fast finishing Mbuleli Mathanga (28:40) with Desmond Mokgobu a further 8 seconds behind.

Zimbabwe’s Fortunate Chidzivo took the race by the scruff of the neck, surging into the lead from the gun. Chidzivo clocked a new National Zimbabwean record of 32:26, improving her best from 33:49 and breaking the previous course record held by Irvette van Zyl of 32:49, which she set in 2018. Kesa Molotsane took second place (33:30) and Rutendo Nyahora was third (33:50).

Going the distance

The weekend’s marquee event, the 42.2km Sanlam Cape Town Marathon saw over 13,500 runners take to Cape Town’s iconic streets for Africa’s only IAAF Gold Label Status marathon.

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Kenya’s Edwin Koech won the 2019 edition in 2:09.20 in ideal conditions. Koech was too strong for a stellar field that included Daniel Muteti, Mohamed Ziani and South Africa’s Elroy Galant. He broke away in the final kilometre to defeat Muteti, who was the official pacemaker, by 5 seconds. Mohamed Ziani rounded out the podium (2:09.29). Elroy Gelant in only his second marathon was 4th in a time of 2:10.31 to also claim the SA men’s marathon championship title.

Celestine Chepchirchir broke Helalia Johannes’s course record, clocking 2:26.44, taking just under 3 minutes off the record set in 2018 (2:29.28). Nurit Shimels Yimam was second (2:27.40), Gete Mindaye Tilahun came home in third (2:28.32). All three were inside the previous course record. Cornelia Joubert claimed the SA women’s marathon title.