The weekend saw two days of running events , with the Sanlam Cape Town Trail Marathon 46km and Trail Run 22km , as well as the Sanlam Cape Town Peace Run 10km and 5km events , taking place on Saturday 15 October . That was followed by the main event , the road marathon on Sunday 16 October , which offered

Stephen Mokoka claims his third win

a substantial prize-purse totalling R1,751,500 , with the men ’ s and women ’ s winners each taking home R250,000 each , with R125,000 for second place and R60,000 for third . There was also a R100,000 bonus incentive on offer for a new course record .

Mokoka Completes His Hattrick

Defending champion Stephen Mokoka once again showed why he is South Africa ’ s premier marathoner as he claimed a third win in the marathon . The Olympian and 30-time SA Champion broke the tape in 2:09:58 , three seconds faster than his winning 2:10:01 last year , and the fourth-fastest winning time in the race ’ s history . Second position went to Ethiopian Derseh Kindie Kassie in 2:11:26 , with his countryman Dagnachew Adere Maru marking his marathon debut by outsprinting Kenya ’ s Raymond Kipchumba Choge to take third place , 2:11:52 to 2:11:55

The leading men ran conservatively in the first half of the race , passing halfway in 1:05:36 , with Mokoka biding his time near the front of the lead pack until the 32km mark , where he made a decisive break . He said , “ I am delighted to win in Cape Town for a third time , but this was a tough , tough course . Normally at 25km you start enjoying a marathon , but at 28km , we climbed that hill in District Six and it got really hard for a while . I really hope this race does become a World Major , and I hope that government , corporates and runners all get involved to make it happen .”

Meseret Lives Up to Favourite Tag

In the women ’ s race , Meseret Dinke Meleka of Ethiopia took line honours in 2:24:02 , smashing the 2:25:44 course record ( run in 2021 by Lydia Simiyu ), and also breaking her personal best ( PB ) of 2:25:12 . Second over the line was Kenyan Tecla Kirongo in 2:27:56 , also setting a new PB ( her previous best was 2:28:22 ), with another Kenyan , Judith Cherono ,

Meseret Dinke Meleka leading the women ’ s race

taking third in 2:30:32 . The first South African to finish was Stella Marais , clocking 2:38:34 to claim eighth position .

Meleka came into the race as the fastest marathoner in the field , and used her pace and strength to constantly throw in surges to drop the other runners . By the time the leading group reached halfway in 1:12:11 , it had been whittled down to five runners , and then Meleka blew the race wide open . By 30km , she was more than two minutes ahead of the next runner , and her winning margin was eventually just shy of four minutes . “ I am incredibly happy that I ran a personal best , and even more happy about the R100,000 bonus for a new course record !” said Meleka .

Images : Chris Hitchcock , Dean Bannatyne , Johan Minnaar , Lisa Carter , Mark Sampson , Nick Muzik , Rob Wright