Sanlam to sponsor renamed Cape Town Marathon

The renamed Sanlam Cape Town Marathon will take place over a race weekend on 20 and 21 September 2014.

Official headline sponsor

Yegs Ramiah, chief executive: Sanlam Brand says, "The company is delighted at the opportunity to be the official headline sponsor of the marathon that places Cape Town and our continent on the global stage alongside famous marathon cities such as Boston, Chicago, New York, Tokyo, Berlin and London. As a diversified financial services player with an extensive footprint in 11 African countries, we take pride in creating an opportunity for international athletes to compete in a global event on the continent, particularly African athletes.

"We look forward to a long and positive association with the marathon and wish all the participants success come race-day."

South African long-distance Olympic medallist, Elana Meyer, spokesperson for marathon and member of its Exco says it has the support of and presence at the race of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and will now apply for Silver Label classification. After that, the potential for this race will be immeasurable. "We are pleased to have a leading financial services group working with us to realise the potential of this special event."

Festival of Running

Relaunched in February 2014, under a joint partnership agreement between the City of Cape Town, Western Province Athletics (WPA) and ASEM Running, the 42.2km race will provide the culmination of a three-day long 'Festival of Running' in Africa's Mother City. This includes a 10 km peace run, a 4.2 km peace run, two peace trail runs, a peace relay and a peace mile race. Meyer and Francois Pienaar have joined forces to present this event and drive the vision of the marathon becoming one of the WMM.

"We offer contestants the largest sum of prize money for a South African standard marathon, with cash prizes exceeding R1.6m, which is in line with international city marathon benchmarks and a requirement to be considered for WMM and IAAF membership," says Meyer.