Adidas becomes latest brand to partner Africa’s top city marathon

By Stephen Granger

The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon has earned a reputation as Africa’s top city marathon and remains the single World Athletics Gold Label Marathon on the continent. Far from resting on its laurels, the 42km footrace keeps growing and with global running shoe giant, adidas, announcing its arrival on the team at a recent launch at its Cape Town Waterfront Concept Store, not even the sky appears to be the limit.

Sanlam Cape Town Marathon starts a three year apprenticeship this year as an Abbott World Marathon Major candidate, with the ultimate goal to join existing Marathon Majors London, Berlin, New York, Boston, Chicago and Tokyo in 2025 and adidas’ announcement will add substantial value to the event during the trial period and ‘boost’ the chances of Cape Town making it to the finish line.

Should Cape Town succeed where other candidate cities, such as Singapore, have failed, it would be a betting certainty that the ‘triple-striped’ shoes company will look to extend their three year tenure to take advantage of being associated with yet another World Marathon Major.

“It’s an honour to come on board as technical sponsor,” said Senior Brand Director at adidas, Kate Woods. “We look forward to supporting the race to achieve World Marathon Majors status. Globally, adidas already partners with two of the other World Marathon Majors in Boston and Berlin, and we will bring the same level of innovation and running expertise to the Cape Town Marathon.”

Cape Town Marathon race director, Renee Jordaan, welcomed the news. “We are delighted to welcome adidas to join our team on the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon,” said Jordaan. “Adidas are a global brand and we learn from their significant experience in World Marathon Majors. Already we are part of a management panel of World Marathon Majors and having adidas on board with us will benefit us in many ways.”

Jordaan would not be drawn on whether this might include an exchange of winners between Cape Town, Berlin and Boston, but potentially that could bring the best in the world to Cape Town in spring. She was emphatic, though, that Cape Town Marathon would always prioritise the participation of South Africa’s top marathoners.

“Gerda Steyn and Stephen Mokoka are South Africa’s top marathon athletes and we will do everything to ensure they will be racing in Cape Town in October!”

Jordaan was quick to point out the significant added value of hosting big city marathons.  “A recent study revealed that the direct and indirect economic impact of the 2018 Chicago Marathon totalled a massive R5.6 billion,” Jordaan explained. “That’s almost six times the total realized by the Cape Town Cycle Tour, The Two Oceans, the Cape Epic and the Rugby Sevens combined!”

The Cape Town Marathon team will continue to work with the City of Cape Town and its partners to ensure that the minimum standards required of the World Marathon Major candidate cities are met.  “We’re working on a route that will be in line with the World Marathon Majors’ safety and capacity requirements,” explained Olympic silver medallist and co-founder and race ambassador of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, Elana van Zyl. “We need to ensure that the event has the least possible impact to the city’s flow of traffic, while maximising the space at the start to prevent runner traffic jams.”

“We’re keeping the total climbing altitude to less than 400m, maximising the views and features of this beautiful city, and making it even more spectator friendly,” Van Zyl continued. “We will keep many of the best features of the marathon and will continue to look at how we can improve the runners’ experience, from their first touchpoint at the Expo through to their last at the finish line.”

Woods is proud of what her company has achieved in the sport, arguably putting adidas on top of the pedestal in global road running success. “We’ve been innovating relentlessly over the last few seasons to ensure we bring leading technology and best service to our runners,” Woods said.

“We’ve had an incredible year and are very proud of our 2021 results. Last year, adidas athletes achieved an incredible 60% wins and 40% of all podium places at the seven World Marathon Majors, and they established eight world records across varying road and track and field distances!

“Adidas has a long and proud history of innovation when it comes to running. Our founder, Adi Dassler, handcrafted leather track shoes with extra length spikes for Jesse Owens at the 1936 Summer Olympic Games, who went on to win four gold medals at that event,” recalled Woods.

“Since then, we’ve innovated to help some of the world’s most accomplished athletes such as Haile Gebrsellaise and more recently Kibiwott Kandie, Rhonex Kipruto, Senbere Teferi and Peres Jepchirchir perform at their best on race day. Our history is long, but I can tell you that our future will be even longer.

“But we not only partner with elite athletes around the globe,” Woods continued. “We want to ensure that this investment is felt on the ground in South Africa and that we are providing a platform for local athletes to achieve great success. We are excited about our recent signings from the region, including Gerda Steyn and Lesotho marathoner, Neheng Khatala.  And in addition to road athletes, top trail athletes Toni McCann and Bianca Tarboton have signed with our global adidas TERREX team and will be at the start line of the Cape Town Trail Marathon in October.”

Steyn is excited about her transition to adidas. “I’ve made some big changes in my career this year, the biggest being joining the wonderful adidas family,” Steyn said at the launch via a Zoom connection. “I joined adidas at the beginning of the year because I’d received great feedback from international and local athletes, such as Elana, about the brand’s values. 

“What stood out for me was how invested they are in women’s sport, which is something I’m really proud to be a part of, and how they have invested in people in their corner, making them a company I want to walk with for the rest of my career,” Steyn emphasised.

Having raced competitively at the 2021 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon, Steyn says it’s an event that all elite athletes should experience. “It’s a unique event in many ways. It’s the only Abbot World Marathon Major candidate in Africa, and the only marathon in Africa with a world athletic label. And it’s in the most beautiful city in the world, in my opinion!

“Africa is where long distance running was born. I can’t imagine any elite athlete having a career which does not include the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon!  I’ve no doubt that amazing things are going to happen at this special race – right in the heart of Africa!”

Another elite athlete the launch was Tokyo paralympic gold medallist in the T47 400m, Anrune Weyers, who enthused about the importance of the sport becoming more accessible to differently abled athletes. Now in retirement, following medal hauls at the London, Rio and Tokyo Olympics, Weyers admitted she had been reflecting on her future journey. “I would like to branch out into different distances of running including running the Cape Town Marathon in 2022. Being part of the adidas team, perhaps I can even go for a long run with Gerda!  

“I’d also like to invest in coaching – to help others benefit from the sport as I have been fortunate to have done. Last year at the Cape Town Marathon I was at the start with Elana and quite jealous that she was going to run. I could feel my feet tapping on the stage. It’s a bit crazy going from 400m to 42km, but I’m going to be running this year.  My problem with coming from the track as an elite athlete, is that I’m very driven,” Weyers admitted. “It won’t be enough simply to run. I need to run to the best of my ability.”

Elite athletes often grab the race headlines, but Woods recognized the importance of encouraging everyone on their running journey. “Running is the most democratic sport. You need nothing but the will to wake up, get out the door and enjoy the benefits that running can bring to your life.

“Our investment into this sport is ambitious,” Woods admitted. “We want to set world records, but we also want to take our product and services into communities on the ground. Three adidas community hubs in South Africa – in Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban – bring together like-minded people in the sport, no matter what distance or pace you run.

“Our investment in the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is, for us, the cherry on the top. We want to show the world what we are capable of in staging this event and to really bring Africa its first World Marathon Major. Together with Sanlam, it’s an absolute honour to partner with the Cape Town Marathon team.

“We see this as the beginning of a beautiful friendship!”