Latest news with #EdwardMothibi
The Herald
10-06-2025
- Sport
- The Herald
Elite Comrades runners hindered by missed supplement bottles
Several runners who contested top positions in the 98th Comrades Marathon on Sunday blamed undersized tables used to hold elite athletes' bottles for missing their timed fuelling, believing this led to them cramping at crucial segments of the race. Athletes use various energy gels and supplements needed by their bodies to prevent cramping and other issues. Former Comrades marathon winner Edward Mothibi attributed part of his cramping during the second half of the 89.9km race to missing his nutrition bottles at some of the demarcated elite tables. Speaking during the post-race media conference, Mothibi, who placed fourth in the men's race, said that when they reached about 60km he had started having some problems. 'Just about 25km [distance remaining], I started getting some problems,' he said. 'I kept on cramping and I needed to take water each time. 'There was a stage where I was behind, and [race winner] Tete Dijana had to wait for me and ask, 'brother, what is going on?'. 'I told him I kept on cramping and that it was not a good sign. 'I said, 'You must just go for now, I will catch up.' 'We do take nutrition. I was taking nutrition the whole day, but the sad part is that sometimes we had to kneel and try to grab the [special] drinks, and it was very difficult for us. 'We had to skip drinks every time. Without our Nedbank supporters, we could not have got drinks. At least we got them.' He said there had been no way they could have grabbed the drinks from the floor, so they had skipped them and got them from the Nedbank seconders at the next spot. His club manager, Nick Bester, said they had held three meetings with some of the Comrades Marathon Association committee members, telling them that their approach to elite tables was not going to work. 'It is too complicated. They make it too different,' he said. 'We told them before the time, we said they must allow hand and stand, and they said no, they don't want to allow hand and stand.' Bester said he had spoken to women's winner Gerda Steyn's husband, and she had got only three bottles from the elite water stations. 'So that's unacceptable,' he said. 'If he were not on the motorbike with hired people and supporting her, then it would have been big trouble. 'So that was a shortfall and a shortfall could have been prevented if they had listened to the team managers because we are coming with the race for 45 years.' Another elite athlete, who also struggled grabbing the bottles, was Maxed Elite's new star signing, Joseph Manyedi. Manyedi said that during the last 14km of the race he had struggled with cramps when pushing the pace while pursuing Mothibi and Piet Wiersma, who were a few metres in front of him. Manyedi said elite athletes should have their own people second them on the road. Runners and managers from other clubs did not want to speak on record, but also voiced their frustrations. Comrades Marathon Association general manager Alain Dalais confirmed some club managers had spoken to him about the height of the elite water station tables. 'I''s our second year attempting the elite stations,' he said. 'We will take that feedback constructively and look at continuing to improve it next year.' — WATCH: We are the Champions News Agency
The Herald
08-06-2025
- Sport
- The Herald
Dijana wins 2025 Comrades in another superb sparring race with Wiersma
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.
