Dijana wins 2025 Comrades in another superb sparring race with Wiersma

The Herald

08-06-2025

Tete Dijana ran a masterclass tactical race to hold off Dutchman Piet Wiersma and clinch his third Comrade Marathon victory at another thrilling finish in Durban on Sunday.
Wiersma made a late charge but could not quite replicate the sprint finish of 2023 as Dijana won in an unconfirmed time of 5hrs 25min 22sec. Wiersma was 11sec behind (5:25:33).
Exhausted Russian runner Nikolai Volkov (5:29:22) came from nowhere to end in third place in his second Comrades, holding off 2019 up run victor Edward Mothibi in fourth (5:31:43).
The 2025 race was run over 89.98km, about 2km more than the last down run in 2023 won by Dijana because of a finish at the People's Park outside Moses Mabhida Stadium due to renovations to the 2010 Fifa World Cup semifinal venue.
In the 2023 down run, Dijana held Wiersma off in a sprint finish by just five seconds as he won breaking David Gatebe's down record. In last year's up run Wiersma, toughened as he has been this year by a Spartan-condition pre-race camp in the Kenyan mountains, won his first Comrades as Dijana walked to the end with cramps in 14th place.
Dijan, though, is showing he is the master tactician of the down run. He timed his charge perfectly from just after Pinetown and Cowies Hill and this time Wiersma, keeping in sight, could not keep up in the run into Durban.
He added his third win in the race and down run after victories in successive races from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in 2022 and 2023.
Onalenna Khonkhobe dominated the opening three-quarters of the race. The 2024 Two Oceans Marathon winner, kept to his pre-race promise of going out fast after the start at Pietermaritzburg City Hall.
Normally 'TV spotlight' runners lead the first half of the race, but this year it was Khonkhobe, who proclaimed before the race he is using the 2025 Comrades to learn, but will win it 'back-to-back' in future.
Khonkhobe may have a point. Few lead the race from early as far as he managed on Sunday, only overtaken by a high-powered group just past Pinetown. With a tweak to his tactics, surely better-suited to the 56km of Two Oceans, he can challenge better in Comrades.
He led through halfway through the Thousand Hills by eight minutes (2hrs 25min 16 sec) from a group of chasers all expected to drop off the pace or pull out. Not long past halfway, though, it seemed the ploy had backfired as Khonkhobe cramped and walked.
To his credit he recovered and kept in front but with about two hours to go a chasing pack including former winners Dijana, Wiersma, Mothibi, Bongmusa Mthembu and Gatebe was closing in.
Going through Pinetown, Khonkhobe notably slowed and on Cowies Hill he almost ground to a halt, Dijana, Mothibi and Wiersma, tucking in dangerously behind the other two, steaming past him.
Dijana pulled away, as Mothibi dropped off to be passed by Wiersma with about 15km to go.
The runner from Mahikeng in the North West Province surged, Nedbank Running Club teammate Wiersma lurking within sight about 200m behind.
Approaching the final kilometre Wiersma made his challenge, surging and closing the gap to within 100m.