Two Oceans Marathon organisers hopeful of truce with City of Cape Town after permit breach debacle

Cape Town’s prestigious Two Oceans Marathon is in the limelight for the wrong reasons in the aftermath of the 2025 edition. Gerda Steyn and Lesotho’s Khoarahlane Seutloali were winners of the women’s and men’s ultra races, respectively.

However, the duo’s achievements, plus those of thousands of running enthusiasts who completed the gruelling race, have been overshadowed by backlash aimed at the race organisers.

The running community has been less than impressed by how the custodians of the Two Oceans facilitated the 54th edition of the event. The ultramarathon and half-marathon took place on 5 and 6 April, respectively, but the ripple effects of the organisers dropping the ball continue to reverberate.

Gerda Steyn wins the 2025 Two Oceans Marathon on 5 April in Cape Town. (Photo: Peter Heeger / Gallo Images)

Poor management

Because of poor management by the race organisers, the Two Oceans breached the participation cap of 17,000 runners stipulated by the City of Cape Town for the 21km half-marathon. As many as 20,000 entrants were reportedly accepted, and just over 17,000 crossed the finish line before the 3h 30min cut-off time.

The City of Cape Town is an organisational partner of the Two Oceans and offers logistical support, as well as financial support in the form of sponsorship. It was less than pleased by the organisers’ permit contravention.

The city confirmed that it had notified the Two Oceans hierarchy that its sponsorship of the event had come to an end because of the breach.

“Following the Two Oceans half-marathon on Sunday, 6 April 2025, the City of Cape Town’s Events Permitting Office discovered that the Two Oceans Marathon race management allowed more participants to take part in the half-marathon than what was approved in the official permit,” said the city.

“The Two Oceans Marathon race management contravened conditions of its permit and subsequently the events by-law by allowing more than the permitted number of runners to take part.

“This is a complete disregard of the months of work behind the scenes to plan the logistics and safety measures in place around the event. The contravention of stipulated permit conditions places at risk the safety of people taking part in events.

“The sponsorship agreement between the City of Cape Town and the agreement between the city and the Two Oceans Marathon NPC [non-profit company] is clear that any breach of permit will result in the municipality pulling sponsorship of the event. The Two Oceans Marathon NPC was notified of the city’s decision to withdraw support on 10 April 2025.”

Finishers during the 2025 Totalsports Two Oceans half-marathon finishing at UCT Rugby Fields on 6 April 2025 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Photo: Peter Heeger / Gallo Images)

It’s not over

However, the Two Oceans hierarchy believed the relationship could still be salvaged, said Two Oceans chairperson Toni Cavanagh.

She said she could not divulge too much information on the matter because the Two Oceans board was set to meet with the city to discuss the matter further. She said they were also exploring their legal options.

“With regards to the event, we had some issues, which were not material issues. But they are issues which we take very seriously. That pertains to the permit breach, which is common knowledge,” she said.

“It is also public knowledge that the city did present us with a letter. However, their letter states intent to terminate [and not immediate termination].

“The results or conditions around that? We still have to sit in a meeting with the city, discuss what had happened and how we got to the breach, which is obviously an operational matter. [We will also discuss] how we will ensure that this does not happen, moving forward,” she said.

“What happened with the breach of the permit is unfortunate. It is an internal operational matter, which we absolutely will be investigating and addressing, because it is our responsibility to ensure the success of this event — not just for our runners and the running community, but also for the sponsors.”

More issues

Although the issue of the permit breach has dominated the headlines, there were other organisational issues which plagued the 2025 edition of the Two Oceans.

As a direct consequence of accepting more runners than were permitted, the Two Oceans organisers did not have enough medals to distribute.

Participants bemoaned the limited number of water tables along the route. Some runners complained of the distance between the tables, which they said were often overcrowded.

“Naturally, because we had more runners than we were supposed to have, [there was a shortage of medals]. We usually order a buffer of medals. So, we had 17,500 medals, and the people who did not get a medal were just over 400 people,” said Cavanagh.

“We have issued an apology and have been liaising with each person independently. It is a very serious thing when you train and you run. You expect a medal. As a runner myself, that’s what I expect. So, we do regret that.

“We are very meticulous about our planning. I really would like for the greater public to understand that an event of this magnitude has many moving parts. So, the planning process needs to be meticulous.

“However, as we all know, things don’t always run perfectly. There will be faults along the line. But it is how we react to that and we ensure that that never happens again [which is the most important].”

The Two Oceans is an important event on the South African sports calendar, and the negative publicity may result in it losing more hard-to-come-by sponsors.

As Cavanagh pointed out, the organisers will have to do some introspection if they are to restore the general public’s trust in their ability to organise the race.

The City of Cape Town said that despite pulling its funding, it would continue to provide organisational support to the Two Oceans Marathon. DM