The future of the Two Oceans Marathon is in serious doubt after the City of Cape Town pulled its sponsorship of the event following a number of flagrant contraventions of conditions by the organisers of this year’s race.
Organisers were on the receiving end of more criticism this year – as is seemingly the case every year – as runners took to social media in their droves to vent their unhappiness and frustration.
Runners lashed out at the organisers for – among many other things – shocking (read: no) communication pre-race, a lack of sufficient markings on the trail race, goodie bags hardly worth taking home, a lack of water tables during the race and running out of medals for finishers.
‘Lie’
Race director Hilton Kearns is on record as saying they ‘overcompensated in predicting the number of silver medallists they expected and did not have enough bronze medals’.
This was proven to be a lie by well-known South African runner and blogger, Stuart Mann, who, writing on his blog ‘The Running Mann‘ this week exposed the latest untruth.
Mann ran the numbers and the percentage of silver medallists in the Two Oceans Half Marathon has been the same for the last three years: 1.3%.
A mere 234 runners earned silver medals, while 17 443 runners earned bronze this year.
The real reason the race ran out of thousands of bronze medals was the fact they accepted – and took payment for – more entries than they were allowed by the City of Cape Town.
Struggled to rope in sponsors
Meanwhile, according to Two Oceans chairperson Toni Cavanagh, the race has struggled to rope in enough sponsors since emerging from the Covid pandemic a few years ago.
While they appreciated the support from current headline sponsor Totalsports – and the runners who paid entry fees – they are falling short of the claimed nearly R27 million required to organise the event.
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In the irony of all ironies, just two short years ago prior to taking over as Two Oceans chairperson, Cavanagh took to social media to slate the race organisers following her ‘fudging ridiculous’ experience at race collection back in 2023.
Letter from attorneys
The South African website has in its possession a letter of demand to cease and desist from the Two Oceans Marathon NPC and Toni Cavanagh sent to Mann on Wednesday.
The South African website also has it on good authority that Mann plans to neither cease nor desist from exposing the truth.
City of Cape Town response
It appears clear that the City of Cape Town is siding with Mann – and the truth.
In a response sent to The South African website on Thursday, the City confirmed: ‘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.
‘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 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 withdraw support on 10 April 2025.
‘The City provides support in kind in the form of municipal services which assist in the event safety and logistics planning for the Two Oceans Marathon.
‘The City’s actions pertain specifically to its sponsorship of the Two Oceans Marathon – the Event Organiser can continue to apply for permits through the normal channels, as they are required to do in any event – irrespective of City sponsorship.’
How could the race go ahead?
Quite how the Two Oceans Marathon plans on holding an event without the sponsorship of the City of Cape Town remains to be seen, considering the lack of funding alluded to by the organisers themselves.
Whether any other sponsors wish to come on board and be associated with the race and its current Board remains to be seen.
In addition, race founder Celtic Harriers (a club which still receives royalties from the Two Oceans brand, but is no longer involved in the organisation) has said it wants to meet with the Two Oceans board out of concern for the future of the race.
Did you run this year’s Two Oceans Marathon or Half Marathon?
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