Seven years away. One old score to settle.
Irvette van Zyl is back on the Gun Run battlefield, and the four-time Olympian is ready to put the hammer down on Cape Town’s roads.
The Hollywood Athletics Club speed queen returns to the OUTsurance Gun Run 21.1km Half Marathon on Sunday, 13 September, carrying a fearsome piece of unfinished business from 2019.
That year she blasted through the Green Point-to-Camps Bay course in 1:12:11, winning the women’s race and clocking the second-fastest time in Gun Run history.
Only Elana van Zyl’s legendary 1:10:55 course record from 1999 stands between Irvette and the top of the historical leaderboard.
And now she wants another bite at the cherry.
“I’m quite excited,” Van Zyl told The Athlete
“This is the first time I will be back running it since 2019. I knew I wanted to go back but never had the chance. So yeah, just excited everything worked out this year that I can go and run it.”
Her 2019 triumph was even more remarkable because she had undergone significant surgery earlier that year.
The route has not forgotten her.
Neither has she.
“I like the route. It has a bit of a tough hill in it and yeah, it’s just nice views running it and it’s almost a great atmosphere running in Cape Town and going through C point at the finish.”
But the stopwatch remains the ruthless referee.
Van Zyl is targeting another big run, although she knows Cape Town’s weather can play spoiler.
“I’m hoping for close to that time that I did run in 2019. So anything under 73 I’ll be very happy with, but the weather also has to play with. So we’ll see.”
Then comes the big one for the Hollywood camp.
“I’m just excited to be healthy and be running and just be back after seven years of absence and really looking forward to it.”
Mokoka on the Warpath
Before Van Zyl unleashes her kick on Sunday, Stephen Mokoka will bring the thunder on Saturday.
The 41-year-old Hollywood Athletics veteran makes his OUTsurance Gun Run 10K debut as the man everyone wants to knock off his perch.
Good luck catching him.
Mokoka owns a scorching 27:38 10km personal best, a 59:36 half-marathon best and a 2:06 marathon PB.
The four-time Olympian and five-time World Championships representative has also shown this season that Father Time has not yet managed to catch his racing shoes, with a sub-29-minute performance at the 2026 Hollywoodbets Durban 10km.
Last year’s Gun Run 10km champion Adam Lipschitz has moved up to the half-marathon, leaving Mokoka staring down a pack of hungry Cape Town challengers.
They will need more than wishful thinking to stop this veteran express.
The Gun Run has become a Hollywood hunting ground.
Van Zyl wants another slice of history. Mokoka wants his debut victory.
Cape Town gets two Olympians ,two races and one very big weekend of road-running fireworks.
The gun is loaded.
