JOHANNESBURG - This year’s Sanlam Cape Town Marathon will go ahead as planned on October 17 albeit with several adjustments to what runners have come to know of the popular race.
With the race having been restricted to a few elites and ran on a loop in the Mother City as well as in Pretoria and Potchefstroom last year due to the severe Covid-19 restrictions, the organisers have worked hard to ensure a return to some semblance of normality this time around.
“Following extensive consultations and detailed review with the City of Cape Town, Athletics South Africa and National Government, we developed and presented an extensive Covid-19 Risk Mitigation Plan for the event, and received their full support to go ahead with our planning of a safe and enjoyable race on 17 October,” Race Director Renee Jordaan said in a statement released on Tuesday.
Some of the changes to the marathon in line with the risk mitigation plan include the 42.2km race being restricted to 12 000 runners; the start being moved from Beach Road to Fritz Sonnenberg Road and the participants joining their start batches on the Cape Town Stadium Forecourt; a staggered start which will see runners setting off in seeded batched groups from6:15am to 6:50am to allow for ample social distancing.
Other changes are that the runners’ finishing time will be calculated from mat-to-mat instead of the usual gun-to-mat while the cut off time remains six and a half hours which will be based on the last group of runners starting the race.
To reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission, all runners and crew will undergo Covid-19 Antigen testing in the 72 hours prior to the race. Testing will be compulsory regardless of vaccination status, and free of charge. Runners will be tested at Cape Town Stadium before entering the Expo space to collect their race numbers. Antigen test results will be available within 15 minutes.
The 5km & 10km Virtual Peace Runs will be free of charge.
Runners still hoping to be part of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon must hurry, as the revised entry limits mean that the marathon field is already 50% full, and it is expected that the remaining entries will be snapped up fast. Visit www.capetownmarathon.com for more information and to enter.