South Africa's Tete Dijana reclaims Comrades title from rival Wiersma, Gerda Steyn dominates women's race

Daily Maverick

4 hours ago

Tete Dijana won the third Comrades Marathon title of his career, fending off heavy competition from Dutchman Piet Wiersma, while Gerda Steyn was peerless in the women's race.
Rivalries make sports more intriguing. At the Comrades Marathon, a rivalry between South Africa's Tete Dijana and the Netherlands' Piet Wiersma has developed over the past few years. In 2025, it was Dijana who pipped Wiersma to victory.
It is Dijana's third overall success at the Comrades, following victories in 2022 and 2023. In the latter race Wiersma finished just three seconds behind Dijana. This year the gap was slightly larger, as former North West University security guard Dijana crossed the finish line in 5:25:28. His Dutch rival was five seconds adrift.
'In my first 30km it was a little tough because I did not get enough rest yesterday. It must have been anxiety or something,' Dijana told SuperSport after the race.
Dijana said reclaiming the Comrades title from Wiersma was all about 'corrections'. This after a disappointing title defence in 2024, when he suffered severe cramps and ended up in 14th place. Despite the intense pressure from his rival chasing him down this year, Dijana said he was calm in the run-in.
'In the last 10km I saw that he (Wiersma) was closing the gap and I accelerated a little bit to open a bigger gap. It was under control,' he said.
After the race Wiersma acknowledged that he and Dijana now have a fully fledged rivalry. The 27-year-old said he would return again in 2028 to try to wrestle back his crown back from Dijana, who is 10 years his senior.
'I am a much better athlete than I was two years ago. I've done better training and I'm running full-time now. But I was not 100% today, I barely slept over the last three nights. I had stomach issues and I suspect some food poisoning. But Tete was the best today. Congratulations to him,' Wiersma said.
'I'll be back. Tete is clearly the down-run king right now. But I hope I can be the up-run king with a victory next year,' the Dutchman added.
Russian Nikolai Volkov laboured to third place in 5:29:42, with South Africans Edward Mothibi and Joseph Manyedi closing off the men's top five.
Queen of the Comrades
As expected, Gerda Steyn was the winner of the women's race. The defending champion crossed the finish line in 5:51:19. It's Steyn fourth overall success in the Comrades. The 2022 winner, Alexandra Morozova, was a distant second (5:55:56).
In third place, Kenya's Shelmith Muruiki made history as she became the first black woman to finish on the Comrades podium. South African Olympian Irvette van Zyl was fourth on her Comrades debut.
'What a day out here. I was taken away by the amazing support of the crowd. It's something I can't explain in words… I hope that with my God-given talent I can inspire some young girls to aspire to one day be runners – even if it's not as professionals,' said Steyn after her dominant performance.
'As for the race? It went according to plan and I'm very pleased to have bettered my pace from two years ago. It was an excellent day… Judging by the depth of the field we saw today, we'll see times decreasing more and more in the years to come,' Steyn added.
About 22,000 runners started the 98th edition of the 'ultimate human race'. Due to this large contingent, the race organisers divided the runners into two groups – with the elite runners starting at 5.45am and the rest of the entrants beginning the trek from Pietermaritzburg to Durban 15 minutes later.
All this in preparation for the centenary race of the Comrades in 2027, where the largest crowd is expected to be at the start line. DM
Top five
Men
Tete Dijana (RSA) 5:25:28;
Piet Wiersma (NED) +00:05;
Nikolai Volkov (RUS) +04:13;
Edward Mothibi (RSA) +06:13;
Joseph Manyedi (RSA) +06:41
Women