South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka made it two wins from two starts at the 2021 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, making short work of a stellar international field that had eight sub 2:10 men in the field.
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 as ideal conditions, the men’s pace early on was driven by Philemon Mathipa and Sbonisi Sikhakhane.
A big 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.
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 place went to Ethiopia’s Gebru Redagne (2:10.17) with Lesotho’s Tebello Ramakongoana rounding out the top three (2:10.24).
Debutant, Lydia Simiyu smashes course record
In the women’s race, unheralded 25-year-old Lydia Simiyu made history after smashing the course record and running the fastest ever women’s marathon time in South Africa, on debut.
Simiyu came into the race as a novice and a dark horse as very little was known of her. Before the race, she had only ever run in two road races, both half marathons and boasted a best of 1:10.17 for distance.
But Simiyu ran the race like a veteran, letting Gerda Steyn do all the work and pouncing in the latter stages of the race.
The 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 coattails. 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 eleven seconds ahead of Karim (2:25.55) with Teferi rounding off the podium (2:26.12), and Gerda Steyn (South Africa; Nedbank) – 02:26.25 in the fourth position.
