THULANI SIBISI - A Two Oceans Marathon Legend
- Matshelane Mamabolo
- Apr 12, 2024
- 4 min read
His 1986 victory made him a household name, but more importantly, aided him in his battle with prostate cancer

Chronicles of a Two Oceans Champion
Of all the previous winners of the Two Oceans Marathon, Thulani Sibisi is perhaps the most well-known, thanks largely to the 1986 champion’s decision to come out in the open about his battle with prostate cancer.
Adding to his being as renowned is the Newcastle-born former runner’s vociferous support for the recognition of running legends as well as his involvement in the Soweto Marathon which he was a co-founder of.
In the past, Sibisi was an ever-present in Cape Town for the races but his deteriorating health has ensured he missed out on last year’s edition and he will probably not be in the Mother City this weekend.
There is, however, nothing deteriorating about the incredible story of his ‘shock’ victory over a stellar field nearly four decades ago.
I still have vivid memories of an interview I had with him a few years ago when I first got the inside story of the highlight of his running career. We were at his home in Orlando East when Sibisi’s face suddenly lit up as we moved from discussing his battle
with prostate cancer to talking about his success at Two Oceans.
“They didn’t think I’d win,” he said, his earlier sombre tone now cheerful “At the start one of the runners asked me what I was going for and when I told him ‘a win’ he laughed at me. But I was fit and I knew I could win. During the race, I overtook some of the top runners but when they caught up and overtook me they made fun of me. I didn’t give up and I went after them and left them eating my dust.”

The race had been left open by the absence of defending champion and three-time successive winner Siphiwe Gqele as well as record holder Thompson Magawana. Still, the competition was stiff, with the likes of former champion Ben Choeu and the previous year’s fifth-place finisher Mark Page in the mix.
Choeu set the pace and was enjoying a 24-second lead at the halfway mark. But Sibisi and Page (teammates at Rand Athletic Club- RAC) were on his heels and, typical of the Two Oceans, the race was decided at Constantia Nek, Choeu having stretched his lead at Champman’s Peak to 38 seconds on Sibisi who had dropped Page.
Sibisi struck at about 1km from the top of Constantia Nek to take the lead and he never looked back., recording victory in a time of 3:09:30, a good two and a half minutes ahead of second-placed Page with Choeu completing the podium positions.
“It was beautiful to win that race,” the smile on his scrawny face now wider.
Yet he could well never have won Two Oceans, his running career nearly destroyed by the apartheid regime of the time.
“When I moved to Johannesburg after dropping out of matric because it was hard travelling to school for long distances and my parents were just too poor I had to get a job to help out, I worked for Johan Rupert. But I didn’t know who he was. It was only when people spoke about his father Anton that I realized who I was working for.”
Once when Sibisi finished in the top ten of a race, Rupert recognized his potential and instructed him to go to a store in town.
“He’d seen my name mentioned in the Rand Daily Mail (newspaper) that I’d done well and told me to go to 130 Market Street. I got there and found it was an Adidas shop where Joe Frickleton, the famous former football coach, worked. He referred me to Johnny Halberstadt, whom I knew as a top runner from a distance.”
Sibisi realized he was talented in running but working in Westcliff was taking its toll and affecting his running in Soweto where he generally left in the wee hours only to return after sunset – leaving him no time to train.
“I quit working for Johan in 1983 and was jobless for a month but then got a job at the Frontrunner sports shop and this was great because they gave me time to train as well as some Saturdays off to compete in races.”
Soon Sibisi was making great progress and in 1985 he finished runner-up to Bob De la Motte in the 50km City to City Marathon.
“That gave me the belief that I could win a big race and I picked Two Oceans as the one to try out.”
But his delight was soon soured by the apartheid police.
“I was on my way to an RAC function at the Wanderers Club to celebrate our success in the City to City when the police arrested me. That episode really made me bitter and I decided to stop running. But Bob heard of this and wrote a scathing article about this and convinced me not to quit.”

Sibisi returned to the road and finished second at the Peninsula Marathon and then set his sights on the Two Oceans Marathon glory. But how does he get to the Mother City?
“I’d been to Cape Town by bus before and I knew just how tiring it was. I knew that if I was to give myself a chance to win the race, I had to fly there. But I didn’t have enough money. So I called Johan to ask him to buy me a plane ticket. His secretary told me that Johan said he would only buy me the ticket if I was going to win the race. I told her I would.”
And win he did.
That victory served to catapult Sibisi into a South African running legend. And he continues to live on that success – the battle with prostate cancer notwithstanding.
“If I had not won the Two Oceans Marathon, do you think I’d be getting the kind of help I am receiving from them and the other athletes? That win in 1986 helped make me who I am and partly because of it I have been able to survive this cancer for as long as I have.”
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