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On your marks for a flatter‚ faster Cape Town Marathon

A flatter route for this year’s Cape Town Marathon in September should lead to faster times‚ organisers said on Wednesday.

The 42km route starts and finishes in Green Point and will take the 7 000 runners as far south as Claremont.

“The new course is flatter‚ which will make it faster‚ and the times should be quicker throughout the field‚” said race ambassador Elana Meyer‚ who broke multiple roadrunning world records during her career.

“With another world-class line-up expected to compete this year‚ there will definitely be a good chance of seeing records broken on the day.”

The race is the only International Amateur Athletics Federation Silver Label marathon in Africa‚ and organisers said the new route would help to bridge the gap with globally renowned races so that the Cape Town event became Africa’s iconic city marathon.

In last year’s race‚ Kenyan Shadrack Kemboi won in 2hr 11min 41sec‚ just over two minutes outside the fastest time run on a standard course on South African soil‚ set by David Tsebe in Port Elizabeth in February 1990.

Former Olympic 5 000-metre silver medallist Isabella Ochichi of Kenya won last year’s women’s race in 2:30:20‚ the fastest time in South Africa in 25 years.

This year’s men’s and women’s winner will each receive R265 000‚ and the first South Africans home in each race will win R100 000.

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