Esa Smashes African All-Comers' Record as Cape Town Closes In on Majors

What happened

The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon returned on Sunday 24 May after the 2025 edition was cancelled by severe weather — and the rebuild was emphatic. Ethiopia's Mohamed Esa won the men's race in 2:04:55, breaking the course record by more than three minutes and setting an African all-comers' record in the process. Compatriot Dera Dida took the women's title in 2:23:18. Eliud Kipchoge ran 2:13:29 on the first stop of his seven-continent World Tour. And on the eve of the race, Abbott World Marathon Majors confirmed that Cape Town's evaluation as a candidate race is in its final phase, with a decision expected within two to three weeks.

The men's race

Esa came to Cape Town with no marathon victories on his record. He left with the fastest marathon ever run on African soil. The Ethiopian was part of a front group that passed halfway in 1:02:18, with Adriaan Wildschutt doing the early pacing duties for the elite field, and stayed locked in a three-man fight with countryman Yihunilign Adane and Kenya's Kalipus Lomwai through the final ten kilometres. Esa broke clear inside the last 800 metres to cross the line in 2:04:55, slicing more than three minutes off Abdisa Tola's 2024 course record of 2:08:16.

Adane finished second in 2:04:59 and Lomwai third in 2:05:06. The depth was startling: the top ten finishers all came home inside the previous course record.

"To win my first marathon here in Africa, on home ground, and in a course-record time makes this victory very special to me," Esa said at the finish. "Eliud is my role model, and I love and respect him so much."

The women's race

Dera Dida of Ethiopia controlled the women's race from the front group and pulled clear of compatriot Mestawut Fikir in the closing kilometres to win in 2:23:18. Fikir finished second in 2:23:46, with Waganesh Mekasha Amare completing an Ethiopian sweep in 2:23:57 — 27 seconds covered the podium.

The course record set by South Africa's Glenrose Xaba in 2024 — 2:22:22 — stayed on the books, but Dida's winning margin of 28 seconds came inside the deepest women's field the race has hosted.

Kipchoge in Cape Town

Eliud Kipchoge ran his first race since announcing his World Tour — a seven-continent, seven-marathon project supporting the Eliud Kipchoge Foundation and built around the idea of using the sport to connect people across borders. Cape Town was stop one. He crossed the line in 2:13:29 for 16th place.

"Cape Town, this was a special day," Kipchoge said. "You all made our first stop on the tour one we'll never forget."

He used the platform to back the city's Majors bid directly: "I believe the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon will become an Abbott World Marathon Majors event, creating a real legacy for Africa."

The next stop on the tour is the Porto Alegre Marathon in Brazil on 12 July.

Wheelchair and 10km

The wheelchair races produced two more course records. Britain's David Weir won the men's race in 1:30:20, taking nearly two minutes off the previous course best of 1:32:09. Switzerland's Manuela Schär dismantled the women's record by more than nine minutes, winning in 1:43:25 against a previous mark of 1:52:58.

In Saturday's 10km Peace Run, South Africa's Maxime Chaumeton ran 27:41 to set a course record in the men's race. Tayla Kavanagh took her third consecutive women's title in 31:25.

The Majors bid

The race is the first African marathon to hold candidate status for the Abbott World Marathon Majors, and 2026 marks the final year of its evaluation. Last year's cancellation had threatened to disrupt the process; bouncing back with a course record, deep elite fields, the Marathon Tours and Travel Age Group World Championships on the same day, and the biggest entry list in the event's history — 8,500 international runners and 1,850 age-group competitors among them — answered most of the open questions in one weekend.

AbbottWMM CEO Dawna Stone said her assessors were "really impressed" by the race and that the evaluation team "have everything they need to complete their work." She called the day "incredible to see the hard work of the Cape Town team come together on a spectacular day." A formal verdict is expected within two to three weeks.

Cape Town 2026 finishers will receive a provisional star — fully recognised as a Majors finish if the race passes evaluation.

Marathon CEO Clark Gardner put it simply: "We were coming off an event that was cancelled in 2025. It was really great to bounce back with an event on a perfect day, with great organisation, and an incredible elite result."

The bigger picture

Cape Town now has the fastest marathon ever run on African soil on its books, a women's podium covered by 27 seconds, two slashed wheelchair records, the greatest marathoner in history endorsing its bid, and a Majors decision a fortnight away. The race that began in 2014 and earned World Athletics Gold Label status in 2023 is one short announcement from becoming the eighth Abbott World Marathon Major — and the first on the continent that has shaped the modern marathon more than any other.