Olympics
Cape Town Enroute to be Included in the Abbotts World Marathon Majors says Deputy Mayor
Cape Town Marathon aims for Abbott World Marathon Majors status by 2025, with Deputy Mayor Eddie Andrews optimistic about achieving Africa’s first Major race
Ashley Vlotman/Gallo Images
This weekend the roads of Cape Town will be packed with runners from across the globe.
The Cape Town Marathon was nominated as a candidate race to receive full status, which could see the city join the six of the largest and most renowned marathons in the world with Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York City.
Deputy Mayor of Cape Town Alderman Eddie Andrews has high hopes the city of Cape Town will receive full status next season. It is also the first Marathon in Africa to be nominated.
"We [City of Cape Town] have partnered with the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon team to ensure the event is successfully hosted. This is one of our flagship events and partnering with the Cape Town Marathon organisation, it allows us to showcase Cape Town and all that we offer in the city,” Andrews told SportsBoom.com.
“You got the Table Mountain backdrop, the Sea Point Promenade and a family friendly environment with these types of events. We will also be welcoming international tourists as well and the impact of that goes towards our economy.”
Most of these people have to stay somewhere, they have to eat somewhere and would in turn support formal and informal businesses. The GDP of the city will definitely have a positive injection.
Eddie Andrews
Cape Town Marathon reaching full status
With Cape Town already being nominated as a candidate and could potentially receive full status in 2025, deputy Mayor believes it can achieve full status as an Abbotts World Marathon Major status.
"It is our absolute intention to reach full status. We have really been supporting the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon team in terms of planning for the event. One requirement is that we need the assistance of ordinary joe public, as certain parts of the race vehicles will not be permitted to park.”
“So we need to inform our public and need them to please comply with the marshals requests. We certainly need their support as the public which will help us reach full status and the first in Africa."
Past Route issues
In order to become a Major, the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon will be required to meet certain criteria for three years and if successful, will join an elite group of races. One of the issues the city has had to manage has been the road and accessibility for the general public and participants.
Mayoral committee member for safety and security, JP Smith told the False Bay Echo, "one of the biggest issues the marathon encountered during the 2023 race was parked cars along the route, which resulted in an unfavourable assessment by the World Marathon Majors officials."
"We do obviously want to comply with the International Federations standards and something that I personally had to encounter a couple of years ago after I did my first marathon, there was a section where you cross over onto a pedestrian bridge...you basically had to run up and down.”
“That is no longer the case and we had to remove that because we can’t have any step staircase that you have to navigate on the route. I obviously spoke about the parking requirements and logistical support behind it, we also have the local municipality on board to ensure the safety and traffic is managed on the day.”
This year the event is sold out and I think we are on the right path in becoming World Majors.
Eddie Andrews
Expectations for Cape Town Marathon
"Firstly I would like to say thank you to our residents who will be slightly inconvenienced for those six and half hours on Sunday and the planning beforehand.”
“From a race perspective in terms of potential winners, I don't want to speculate much as it's not my area of expertise but having listened to the know, they often refer to the Cape Marathon as a fast-flat course so we should be looking at good times on the day.”
“We always have a strong complement of elite runners for the men who should dip below 2 hours and 10 minutes and anything between 2 hours 25 minutes and 2 hours 30 minutes for the ladies. Every year we have a strong delegation of international runners who participate at the event.”
“We also expect good spectator value, if we look at the last 5-8 km of the race, you do a loop around the Sea Point Promenade and I suspect that will be the place to be on Sunday."
Interaction with Abbotts World Marathon organisation
"Personally I haven't been in those conversations with the Abbotts World Marathon organisation but our team has been in constant communication with them.”
“We have delegated and authorised our events department to engage with them to understand what logistical requirements we have to comply with and we are complying with those in terms of what is required on the route and the logistical support the local municipality has to provide.”
“We are fairly confident we are ticking the right boxes and now we just have to wait for the decision if Cape Town is considered one of the Majors."
Nathan has over a decade of knowledge and experience, both as a former professional sportsperson and journalist. Nathan, a former radio sports presenter and producer is an award-winning community radio sports producer/presenter.