Totalsports Women's Race Cape Town 2025 Digimag August 2025 | Page 27

ELITE RACE

LOOKBACK TO 2024

The 2024 edition of the Totalsports Women’ s Race Cape Town, attracted a huge field of nearly 9000 across the two distances, but this record field then had to be kept waiting on the start line because a fire had broken out in a building alongside the route, forcing the organisers to cut out that section to ensure the safety of the participants. This shortened the race to 9.1km, but it did not affect either the quality of the racing, or the fun experienced by the field from start to finish.

Having already won the Durban leg of the series in a fast 31:00, Kenyan Christine Njoki made it two wins in a week as she took line honours in the Mother City in 28:30, which equates to around 31:11 for a full 10km. She had to work hard for the win, though, with Ethiopian Tadu Nare pushing her all the way to the line, while third home was South African Glenrose Xaba, nearly a minute back.
2024 CAPE TOWN TOP 10
1 Christine Nalimo Njoki( Kenya)
28:30
2 Tadu Nare( Ethiopia)
28:31
3 Glenrose Xaba( South Africa)
29:26
4 Selam Fente Gebre( Ethiopia)
29:48
5 Diniya Kedir Abraya( Ethiopia)
30:22
6 Marion Chepkoech( South Africa)
30:59
7 Tayla Kavanagh( South Africa)
31:27
8 Karabo Maluila( South Africa)
32:03
9 Fortunate Chidzivo( Zimbabwe)
32:53
10 Yandiswa Shange( South Africa)
34:31
Christine Njoki takes the sprint finish in Cape Town in 2024

ROLL OF HONOUR

The list of former winners of the three Totalsports Women’ s Races includes a veritable who’ s who of South African road running, going right back to Elana Meyer winning the first race in Cape Town in 2002.(* denotes the fastest time run for each race.)
TOTALSPORTS WOMEN’ S RACE CAPE TOWN
2002
Elana Meyer
32:51
2003
Carlien Cornelissen
34:33
2004
René Kalmer
34:45
2005
Mamorallo Tjoka( Lesotho)
34:04
2006
Zintle Xiniwe
34:34
2007
Bulelwa Mtshagi
37:02
2008
Anneline Roffey
34:41
2009
Mia Pienaar
37:17
2010
Lusanda Bomvana
37:20
2011
René Kalmer
34:04
2012
Bulelwa Simae
36:25
2013
René Kalmer
33:35
2014
Irvette van Zyl
32:20 *
2015
Lebo Phalula
33:16
2016
Zintle Xiniwe
36:58
2017
Lebogang Phalula
34:21
2018
Annie Bothma
35:20
2019
Annie Bothma
34:52
2020
No event due to COVID-19
2021
No event due to COVID-19
2022
Fortunate Chidzivo( Zimbabwe) 35:28
2023
Lisha Van Onselen
37:51
2024
Christine Njoki( Kenya)
28:30 **
** Course shortened to 9.1km due to a fire
alongside the route
TOTALSPORTS WOMEN’ S RACE
JOHANNESBURG
2007
Irvette van Zyl
37:34
2008
Irvette van Zyl
36:49
2009
Irvette van Zyl
35:31
2010
Irvette van Zyl
35:31
2011
Lebo Phalula
35:50
2012
Lebo Phalula
35:45
2013
Cornelia Joubert
37:55
2014
Lebogang Phalula
36:01
2015
Lebogang Phalula
33:22
2016
Lebogang Phalula
33:41
2017
Irvette van Zyl
34:09
2018
Mamorallo Tjoka( Lesotho)
34:33
2019
Glenrose Xaba
35:05

WINNING STATS

2020
No event due to COVID-19
2021
No event due to COVID-19
2022
Glenrose Xaba
34:36
2023
Irvette Van Zyl
34:58
2024
Glenrose Xaba
32:56 *
TOTALSPORTS WOMEN’ S RACE DURBAN
2011
René Kalmer
33:21
2012
René Kalmer
34:21
2013
Jenna Challenor
34:59
2014
Irvette Van Zyl
33:49
2015
Lebogang Phalula
33:44
2016
Irvette Van Zyl
33:02
2017
Mapaseka Makhanya
34:30
2018
Glenrose Xaba
33:41
2019
Jenet Mbhele
34:51
2020
No event due to COVID-19
2021
No event due to COVID-19
2022
Tayla Kavanagh
33:11
2023
Cacisile Sosibo
33:31
2024
Christine Njoki
31:00
2025
Christine Njoki
30:14 *
Last year, Kenyan Christine Njoki rewrote a number of records in the Totalsports Women’ s Race. She became the first international athlete not based in South Africa to win a Totalsports Women’ s Race, and her time of 31:00 to win in Durban was the fastest time ever run in all Totalsports Women’ s Races. She then won the( shortened) Cape Town leg as well, making her just the fourth athlete in the history of the event to win two Totalsports Women’ s Race titles in the same year. Having won the Durban leg already in 2025, she could now become the first athlete to do an unprecedented‘ double double.’ to win in Cape Town this year, Njoki could join Xaba on four wins, but both have a long way to go to challenge all-time leading winner Irvette van Zyl’ s remarkable nine-win tally.
MOST WINS 9 Irvette van Zyl( CTx1, Jx6, Dx2) 5 René Kalmer( CTx3, Dx2) 5 Lebogang Phalula( Ctx1, Jx3, Dx1) 4 Glenrose Xaba( Jx3, Dx1)
DOUBLE WINS
Double Wins
2011
René Kalmer
Cape Town & Durban
2014
Irvette van Zyl
Cape Town & Durban
2015
Lebogang Phalula
Johannesburg & Durban
2024
Christine Njoki
Durban & Cape Town
By winning the third leg of the 2024 series, in Johannesburg, SA’ s Glenrose Xaba took her tally of Totalsports Women’ s Race wins to four( three in Johannesburg, one in Durban), which moved her to third place on the all-time list of multiple winners for the Totalsports Women’ s Race. With three wins to her name already and looking like the favourite
Glenrose Xaba sets the pace during the 2024 race in Johannesburg
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