Title sponsor Sanlam has announced that it will be offering every 2025 marathon entrant a sponsored entry for either May 2026 or 2027. The offer will be extended to all 2025 marathon entrants, regardless of whether the race succeeds in its bid to become Africa’s first Abbott World Marathon Majors event.

When faced with adversity, Africans unite.

No refunds will be offered, but those who were registered for this year’s marathon can receive deferred entries into the 2026 or 2027 race. The specifics of this offer, and the entry process that 2025 entrants need to follow, will be announced in due course.

24 000 runners woke up early Sunday morning to make their way to the start of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, only to receive notification that the race had been cancelled due to infrastructure and route damage caused by the South Easter.

The race was cancelled at 04h45, an hour and a half before the scheduled 06h15 start time, after emergency meetings between the race organising team and the Joint Operations Committee (JOC), which consists of representatives from the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management and Safety and Security portfolios, as well as medical services and the South African Police Services.

Both the route and start/finish venue were deemed unsafe for runners and spectators, and the difficult decision was taken to ensure the safety of everybody at the event.

“When faced with adversity, Africans unite. We find a way to create opportunity out of adversity, despite all obstacles and challenges,” says the Sanlam Group CEO, Paul Hanratty.

“We remain confident that the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is on course to become an Abbott World Marathon Majors race. Following the disappointment felt by the marathon runners today, we feel that we need to support all of those who were not able to take part in the race.”

The marathon runner embodies resilience in its purest form. They are a testament to discipline, patience, and the ability to push through fatigue, doubt, and discomfort – and yesterday the runners certainly showed their ability to embrace the bad news, uniting to make something special out of the disappointment of not being able to do the race.

Many of the runners, carbo-loaded to the gills and well rested from a week of very little running in preparation for the marathon, took to the streets of Cape Town and the surrounding suburbs to do their own runs, with friends, their run crews, or solo. It was special to witness.

Sanlam has been the title sponsor of the event since 2014 and has played a leading role in the marathon’s rapid growth, while also supporting the event’s candidacy process to become an Abbott World Marathon Majors race.

Successfully passing this candidacy assessment would see the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon join the New York, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, Tokyo, Sydney and London Marathons in the Majors.

In reaction to Sanlam’s generous offer, event CEO, Clark Gardner, says, “We have been amazed by the support and understanding from our entrants, sponsors and community after the very difficult decision to cancel our event.

“This incredibly generous offer from Sanlam exemplifies their commitment to our event, even in our lowest moment. Now we will do our part to ensure the 2025 entrants return to our start line and enjoy a world-class marathon on African soil.

“We apologise to all the disappointed entrants, and will be making contact with all of them soon with more information about the sponsored entries for the 2026 or 2027 editions of the marathon,” adds Gardner.

The event team asks runners to please be patient while the details of the sponsored entry process are finalised.

The 2026 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon will take place on 24 May 2026. For more information, please visit www.capetownmarathon.com.

Cancellation Timeline for Sunday Morning: Following the cancellation of Sunday’s Sanlam Cape Town Marathon just an hour and a half before the scheduled 6:10am start, due to adverse wind conditions, the organisers have received many enquiries as to the decision-making process that led to the cancellation.

“After a near-perfect day on Saturday for our Peace Run 10km and 5km events, and our three Cape Town Marathon Trail Races, we were all looking forward to the biggest edition of the marathon to date, with the strongest field ever assembled for a marathon on African soil, and passing stage two of our candidacy assessment to achieve Majors status. Our team had worked for months on this event, planning for all scenarios, but a bigger force had the final say, and we once again apologise to all our Marathon entrants and their supporters, as well as our sponsors and partners, that the race was not able to take place.”

There have been questions asked by both disappointed marathon entrants and the media, given that the weather improved markedly during the course of the morning, leading to speculation that the race could have gone ahead after all.

In the spirit of transparency, the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon team would like to share more details of what happened in the early hours of Sunday 19 October, eventually leading to the extremely difficult decision to cancel the race.

What follows is a summary of events taken from notes made by the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon Safety Officer, Phil Prinsloo of Eyethu Events. He was part of the event’s Joint Operations Committee (JOC), which consisted of representatives from the race organisers, the City of Cape Town’s Disaster Risk Management and Safety and Security portfolios, as well as medical services and the South African Police Services (SAPS).

00h15 – First reports of high winds at the Race Village (including two start lines and the finish line) in Green Point, as well as at various points on the route.
02h00 – More reports of high winds at Race Village and along the route.
02h15 – Safety Walk inspection of Race Village observes damage at Start in Fritz Sonnenberg Road, with some infrastructure blown over. Damage was also observed at the Finish, with fencing blown over, and in the Hospitality Area, where most gazebos and some furniture was blown away. Wind meter readings taken of gusts up to 48km/h.
02h20 – Race organising team begins removing branding on fencing, repairing infrastructure (where possible) and clearing up race venue, in spite of ongoing strong winds.
02h30 – More damage in the race venue observed: Stretch tent torn and blown away, Medical Tent brace dislodged. More gusts of 48km/h were measured.
02h30 – Race Village officially shut down by safety officials and enforced by security staff. Event staff and volunteers, as well as vendors not able to access, pass through or set up in any part of the Race Village, or gain access to equipment or supplies stored in the Race Village and scheduled to be dispatched out onto the route.
03h00 – Route Safety Team deployed to various sectors of the route, report the following through regular feedback to the JOC:

• Sea Point: Fencing and infrastructure at Start in Beach Road have been blown over or shifted into the road. Period of high wind conditions from 03h00 to 06h30.
• Woodstock: Very high winds were experienced, and by 04h30, all signage was blown over, and traffic cones were blown out of position.
• Observatory & Rondebosch: Very high winds experienced, with gusts of more than 60km/h observed between 03h30 and 04h30, affecting fencing in this area.

04h15 – Report from the Start of further infrastructure movement and unsafe situation.
04h40 – Report from Race Village and Observatory that the wind situation has not changed since 02h00, with continuing gusts up to 46km/h. At this stage, nobody is able to predict if or when the wind will subside.
04h40 – Structural engineer reports that he cannot do final certification that the following structures are safe: Start towers on Fritz Sonnenberg, scaffold bridge on Vlei Road, hospitality marquee and shade stretch tents in Race Village, medical tents on route, pedestrian bridge on Vlei Road, and main medical marquee at finish.
04h45 – Decision taken by the Safety Committee to cancel the event, and JOC authorised the decision.
05h00 – Communication of cancellation goes out to all runners via direct WhatsApp messaging and on social media, urging them not to travel to the start venues. The cancellation announcement is also shared with local radio stations.
05h10 – Further reports of gusts up to 46km/h measured at Race Village and Observatory.
05h15 – Messaging displayed on all VMS boards, leading to the city notifying inbound motorists of cancellation.
06h30 – First press release from the race office about the cancellation sent to all media platforms and partners.

“The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon was managed in accordance with the Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act (SASREA) of 2010. This Act was promulgated to safeguard the safety and well-being of individuals and property at sporting and recreational events in South Africa,” says Prinsloo. “The Act stipulates that the responsibility for ensuring safety and security lies with the event’s controlling body, organiser or venue owner, through its Event Safety Plan, which must consider all reasonably practicable duties, actions and operational procedures to mitigate the hazards and related risks that might arise.”

As such, the decision to cancel the race required a unanimous decision by all members of the JOC, taking into account all the reports received and the observations, concerns and opinions of a team of highly qualified and experienced people. Prinsloo adds, “Although the Event Safety Plan endeavoured to balance the likelihood and severity of risks with the amount of energy, effort, time and money required to mitigate these risks, it is important to note that the decision to cancel the race was all about the safety and security of the participants. Neither the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon nor its Abbott World Marathon Majors goals influenced the decision-making process.”

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