and has five sub 2:10 clockings to his name . With a PB of 2:09.49 in Dubai in 2019 , ignore him at your peril .
Muteti is no stranger to Cape Town having finished 2nd in the last ‘ proper ’ race in 2019 , crossing the line in 2:09.25 , some five seconds behind the winner . Muteti has run only three marathons in his career , all of them in 2019 , but is clearly a big threat in any race he lines up in . Of the 14 half marathons he has entered , Muteti has won 10 .
Maswai is a two-time top-10 finisher at the Berlin Marathon and boasts a best time of 2:08.52 . Of his 25 marathons , in only five has he finished outside the top 10 , plus he ’ s had two wins in Karlsruhe .
Steyn makes a debut
That Gerda Steyn loves to race is common knowledge . That she loves Cape Town is also well known . That she is the queen of road running and the darling of South Africa is a fact . Now Steyn will bring all of that passion , joy and fighting spirit to the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon .
Her rise to the top has been nothing if not meteoric . Having started to run in 2015 just to do the Comrades , Steyn has climbed to the top of women ’ s running in South Africa in five short years . From becoming the first woman to go sub-6 in the Comrades up run , to winning the Two Oceans Marathon twice and coming within a whisker of breaking the course record , Steyn has taken SA by storm . But even in ultra crazy SA , no one can deny her prodigious talent for the marathon . In 2020 , in a London Marathon in atrocious conditions , Steyn came within a whisker of breaking the SA marathon record ( 2:26.35 ) that stood behind the name of Colleen de Reuck since 1999 . Steyn was 15 seconds off that time in London . Fast forward to March 2021 and Siena , where Steyn flew
to a 2:25.28 , smashed that record and came within a whisker of the SA best time of 2:25.25 held by Elana Meyer . Steyn ’ s range is remarkable . A sub-6-hour Comrades up run , a sub- 2:26 marathon and 15:45 for 5km is almost unheard of .
When she started racing , Steyn would never have dreamt of being on the start line at the Olympics . That had been a childhood fantasy but never really considered in the realms of reality . Until she finished 11th in the 2019 New York City Marathon and qualified with her 2:27:48 . All of a sudden , a whole new career beckoned . And Steyn ran with incredible composure in Tokyo , finishing 15th in 2:32.10 in the brutal conditions . Her splits were virtually identical .
Now the Olympian lines up in Green Point to take on the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon . You can be sure the whole country will be glued to their TV screens to cheer her on .
Kenyan and Ethiopian threat
Up against Steyn is the ever-present threat of Ethiopia and Kenya . The fastest marathoner in the field is Kenya ’ s Lucy Karimi . And she is in shape . Karimi won the 2021 Geneve Marathon in a time of 2:24.24 , boasts a half marathon best of 68:43 , and of her 18 marathon runs , eight ended on the top rung of the podium .
The two Ethiopians Ayantu Ayana Demissa and Abera Mulisa also pose a big threat . Mulisa finished 8th in the Prague Marathon in May this year , clocking 2:28.02 . Demissa won the Padova Marathon in 2019 in 2:29.30 , so she knows what it takes to win a hard-fought marathon . To win in Cape Town on 17 October will be a huge title for Steyn – and if she holds off the foreign challenge , no one can ever doubt her role on the global marathon stage .
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