HISTORY MADE IN CITY MARATHON
SOUTH Africa’s Stephen Mokoka made short work of a stellar international field that had eight sub-2:10 men in the field as he took the men’s title at the 2021 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon yesterday.
In the women’s race, marathon debutant Lydia Simiyu stunned a quality field to win in a new course record.
With no pacemakers in the field, the men’s race became a tactical affair, with Mokoka making the decisive break just before 40km.
In what started out as ideal conditions, the men’s pace early on was driven by Philemon Mathipa and Sbonisi Sikhakhane.
A pack of around 20 athletes went through the halfway mark in 65:50, with all the bigger South African
names, such Philani Buthelezi, Mathipa, Sibusiso Nzima, David Manja and Melikhaya Frans very prominent in the front.
It was Kenya’s Alex Saekwo who started the first big surge of the day as the runners approached the Hartleyvale Hockey Astro.
When the athletes went through 30km in 1:33.13, the lead group had been whittled down to 10, including Ethiopia’s Ameta Belachew, a 2:07.50 marathoner.
Mokoka made his final move just before 40km and dropped Redagne and Ramakongoana to speed away and come home for his second victory in two starts of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, crossing the line in 2:10.01.
Second went to Ethiopia’s Gebru Redagne (2:10.17) with Lesotho’s Tebello Ramakongoana rounding out the top three (2:10.24).
“It was important to me to win at home again,” said Mokoka.
“I knew it was always going to be a tactical race as there were no pacemakers, so I stayed in the bunch and only started to show some aggression after halfway.
“When I broke away just before 40km and the guys couldn’t respond, I knew I had won.”
In the women’s race, unheralded 25-year-old Simiyu made history after smashing the course record and running the fastest ever women’s marathon time in South Africa, on debut.
Prior to yesterday’s race, she had only ever run in two road races, both half marathons, and boasted a best of 1:10.17.
But Simiyu ran the race like a veteran, letting Gerda Steyn do all the work, and pouncing in the latter stages of the race.
South African Steyn pushed the pace from 10km and at one stage the projected winning time was a sub 2:25, but in the end Steyn’s aggressive front running cost her as she fell off the pace at around 38km.
That left Simiyu, fellow Kenyan, Lucy Karimi, who had the fastest marathon time in the field (2:24.24 – Geneva, 2021) and Ethiopian Aynalem Teferi to battle out the podium positions.
Simiyu had the freshest and strongest legs and started a concerted push for home from around 40km. Immediately, Teferi fell off the pace and Karimi was desperately hanging on to Simiyu’s coat tails. But Simiyu surged again with 600m to go and Karimi had to concede. Simiyu crossed the finish line outside the Cape Town Athletics Stadium in 2:25.44, some 11 seconds ahead of Karim (2:25.55) with Teferi rounding off the podium (2:26.12).
Simiyu earned R200 000 for the win, and pocketed an additional R100 000 for breaking the existing course record of 2:26.44 set by Kenya’s Celestine Chepchirchir in 2019.
“I came here to win, but I also wanted to run 2:24 or faster,” Simiyu said.
Sanlam Cape Town Marathon race director Renee Jordaan said: “It was great to see some exciting racing from our lead runners, and we congratulate every single participant who joined us today. The running community really embraced the event, and they were particularly excited about the staggered start and mat-to-mat timing this year.”