Bennet Seloyi claims his maiden national marathon title

The 24-year-old, representing Central Gauteng Athletics (CGA), clocked 2:20:12 to secure both the national title and the Peninsula Marathon win.

His performance earned him a combined prize of R32,000—R12,000 for the Peninsula Marathon victory and R20,000 for the ASA title—while also improving last year’s winning time by two minutes.

KwaZulu-Natal Athletics’ Sinethemba Ntshangase finished second in 2:20:25, with Cijimpi Moloi taking third in 2:23:42.

The 57th edition of the race saw 8,000 runners compete in the annual event.

"The wind was too strong for me today, making it difficult to run my usual race and tough to secure the win. I made my move in the last 5km and decided to push forward, but the weather conditions slowed me down—I was aiming for a 2:10 finish,” Seloyi told SABC Sport after his victory.

 “Last year, I didn’t compete in the national marathon; instead, I ran the Two Oceans Marathon twice in Cape Town. This was my third race here since 2023.”

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Seloyi has now secured both the national 10km and 42.2km titles within the past year, cementing his status as a double national champion.

“I’m not the fastest in the 10km and 21.1km, but I feel I’m performing much better in the marathon. I want to keep pushing because I have bigger goals in the marathon,” said Seloyi, who works as a general worker at a factory in Kempton Park.

He acknowledged the challenge of meeting the World Championships qualifying standard of 2:06 for the Tokyo event in September but remains determined to seize any opportunity.

“I still have a chance to qualify as I’ll be competing in a few more races this year, but I can’t guarantee a 2:06. I’d like to thank my coach, Best Ngwenya, for pushing me to victory today. If we go back to training and work even harder, we might be able to chase that qualifying time,” Seloyi added.

Seloyi believes South African runners should adopt the Kenyan and Ethiopian model of training together to improve their chances of meeting the 2:06 qualifying standard.

“If we train as a group, we can achieve that. More training camps organized by ASA would help us, just like the Kenyans do,” he said.

Reflecting on his marathon victory, Seloyi admitted he had aimed for a sub-2:10 finish.

“The time I ran is not my best. My personal best is 2:16, and I trained hard for this race. If the weather conditions were better, I could have run faster. Now, I’m looking forward to another marathon for a better opportunity.”