The 2025 Cape Town Marathon was canceled on Sunday due to severe high winds that caused damage to parts of the start area, organizers announced on Sunday.
“Due to severe winds overnight that carried on into the early hours of the morning, the 2025 edition of the Sanlam Cape Town Marathon unfortunately had to be cancelled at short notice this morning,” organizers said in a statement. “The decision to cancel was made at 4:45am, and communications to all runners went out at 5am in the form of direct WhatsApp messages to all participants and a dedicated running club captains’ group, as well as statements on social media platforms and statements sent to local radio stations, event media partners and key stakeholders.”
The race was scheduled for Sunday morning, with some of the nearly 24,000 participants already heading to the start with the first wave beginning at 6:15 a.m. local time when the event was canceled.
“The Sanlam Cape Town Marathon is devastated at the cancellation of our very special event,” race CEO Clark Gardner said. “We have worked for months on planning for all scenarios and conditions, but ultimately a bigger force had the final say, and we are so sorry for the situation. We wish to thank our participants, sponsors and stakeholders for their ongoing support and understanding.”
According to published reports, high winds overnight persisted in the hours before the race in the Green Point area of the city where tents and signage at the start were staged, which is also near the finish.
That led to an emergency meeting of race organizers and city officials including police and disaster preparedness teams to discuss if the event could still proceed.
But at the time of the meeting, wind gusts continued and escalated in Woodstock, which is about five miles into the race.
News of the cancelation comes at a time when the Cape Town Marathon, billed as the first African Abbott World Marathon Majors candidate, has stepped up its effort to be elevated as the eighth major. Last year, the Sydney Marathon was named as the seventh major just after the first finishers were crowed at the 2024 New York City Marathon.
It is believed that a new major could be announced in 2027, with Shanghai also vying to be upgraded. All Abbott candidates have to meet specific criterial to prove that their race can sustain high demands, increased capacity and have the infrastructure in place to support an event that draws a significant international field.
Workers later began dismantling signage, roadside barriers and tents as a crowd of hundreds of runners still gathered near the start and were seen slowly jogging and singing along the early part of the route.
Others, however, took to social media to express their frustrations that organizers should have looked at weather forecasts early in the week and made a decision about the race sooner — with other echoing similar sentiments.
“Cape Town Marathon should’ve delayed the start of the race – even if it starts at 08h00 and not completely cancelled it.” a message posted to social media play for X (formerly Twitter) read. “That was a premature decision. It’s 06h06, and there’s no strong wind even along Main Road and Liesbeck side. Who took the decision, based on what?”
