2026 Cape Town Marathon Men’s Results: Huseyidin Mohamed Esa Wins in Course-Record 2:04:55 as Kipchoge Finishes 16th

The 2026 Sanlam Cape Town Marathon’s men’s race finished in 2:04:55, demolishing Abdisa Tola’s 2024 course record of 2:08:16 by a staggering 3 minutes 21 seconds — and rewriting the conversation about what is possible on a rolling 260-metre-elevation marathon course on the African continent.

Huseyidin Mohamed Esa of Ethiopia crossed the line first in 2:04:55, four seconds ahead of compatriot Yihunilign Adane in 2:04:59, with Kenya’s Kalipus Lomwai completing one of the most improbable podium finishes in recent marathon history at 2:05:06.

It was Cape Town’s most consequential men’s marathon in its 17-year history. The deepest field ever staged on the African continent. Eliud Kipchoge’s first marathon on African soil. The second of two Abbott World Marathon Majors candidacy assessments — and with Cape Town awaiting to be confirmed as the eighth Abbott World Marathon Major from 2027, the day’s stakes could not have been higher. The race delivered on every count, just not in the way anyone had drawn up.

How the Race Unfolded

The opening 10K went out hard. A lead pack of roughly 17 runners cleared the V&A Waterfront together and crossed the 10-kilometre mark in 30:00 flat — a 3:00-per-kilometre pace projecting out to a 2:06:30 marathon, already well inside Tola’s 2024 course record. South Africa’s Adriaan Wildschutt led the group through the mat, with Kenya’s Benard Biwott and home favourite Adam Lipschitz equal on time. Boki Kebede Asefa, Abe Gashahun Tilahun, Justus Kangogo, Maru Teferi, Adane Kebede Gebre, Jemal Yimer and Esa himself were all within a second of the leader.

The most-watched bib in the field was four seconds back. Eliud Kipchoge crossed the 10K mat in 30:04, sitting in the chase group rather than the leaders. The 41-year-old Kenyan had told media in race week that Cape Town was an inspirational appearance rather than a time trial — “I am not giving a stipulated time that I need to run in Cape Town.” The opening 10K made the strategy public: Kipchoge was racing his own race, not the leaders’.

Through 15K (45:03) the lead pack remained intact. Then, between 15K and halfway, the front group surged.

The pace dropped to 2:50/km through the southern suburbs. At halfway (21.1K), the lead group was through in 1:02:46 — a half-marathon split that, held, would have produced a 2:05:32 marathon. Adam Lipschitz and Benard Biwott shared the front; Adriaan Wildschutt, Leonard Langat, Abe Gashahun Tilahun and Justus Kangogo were a second behind. Kipchoge crossed in 1:04:08 — 1:22 back, holding 3:04/km, no longer racing for the win.

The climbing section between kilometres 24 and 27 was where the front group broke apart and where the pre-race favourites began to come unstuck. Maru Teferi — the fastest man in the field on personal best at 2:04:44 — dropped from the front group to over a minute back. Adriaan Wildschutt, the South African 10K specialist debuting at the marathon distance, faded from leader at 15K to outside the top six. Adam Lipschitz, who had led at halfway, was off the chase entirely. Benard Biwott would fade to ninth.

What emerged instead, by 35K, was a four-runner front group built from athletes who had ridden the lead pack patiently rather than racing it. Kalipus Lomwai of Kenya led through 35K in 1:44:06. Lomwai’s marathon personal best entering Sunday was 2:13:12 from 2018; his standout recent result was a 59:26 half-marathon at Rome in 2025. The half-marathon speed translated. Leonard Langat (2:06:59 PB) was on his shoulder at 1:44:07. Yihunilign Adane — at 2:05:33 the freshest sub-2:06 in the field — was equal on time. Huseyidin Mohamed Esa completed a four-man front group, one second behind.

Kipchoge, by 35K, had drifted to 16th in 1:49:19 — 5:12 down, running 3:21/km. The first African marathon of his career had become an exercise in completing rather than competing.

Through 40K the lead group stayed locked together. Lomwai, Esa and Adane crossed in 1:58:42, 1:58:42 and 1:58:42 respectively, with Langat one second behind. Everyone else was over nine seconds back. The race for the win had narrowed to four.

The Final 2.2 Kilometres

The decisive move came on the Sea Point promenade between kilometre 40 and the final inland turn through Mouille Point. Esa attacked. He ran the closing 2.195 kilometres in roughly 6:13 — a 2:50/km closing pace that broke the front group definitively. Adane found a second gear to hold on for second; Lomwai’s first marathon in years above 2:13 pace finally caught up with him in the closing kilometre as he settled for third.

Esa crossed the line on the Vlei Road lawn in 2:04:55 — the fastest men’s marathon ever run on the African continent on a record-legal course, and the first sub-2:05 in Cape Town Marathon history. Adane followed in 2:04:59. Lomwai, whose eight-minute personal-best improvement makes him one of the breakout names of the marathon year, finished third in 2:05:06.

The Kipchoge Result

Eliud Kipchoge finished 16th in 2:13:29, eight minutes and thirty-four seconds behind the winner. The 41-year-old Kenyan, two-time Olympic champion and former world record holder at 2:01:09, has not won a Major since 2023; Cape Town extends that drought into 2026. His pace through the back half — 3:21/km from kilometre 30 onward — was the slowest of his serious marathon career.

The result is consistent with the framing Kipchoge offered in race week. “It’s more for inspiration and to reach more people than in the past marathons,” he told reporters at the pre-race press conference. “I am not giving a stipulated time that I need to run in Cape Town.” On the morning, the inspirational appearance prevailed over the racing performance.

For an athlete who has, for the better part of a decade, defined elite marathoning — and whose marathon world record was broken at last month’s London Marathon by Sabastian Sawe’s 1:59:30 — finishing 16th on his first African marathon will be the subject of next week’s hot takes. The race itself was the first of a seven-marathon, seven-continent World Tour that Kipchoge has framed as a global running unity project. By that framing, Sunday was a success regardless of the time.

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