Dijana and Steyn smash Comrades records

South Africans Tete Dijana and Gerda Steyn rewrote the record books, with the two athletes smashing the fastest “down run” times for men and women during a memorable Comrades Marathon run in perfect conditions on Sunday.

Dijana successfully defended his crown, winning the 87.701km epic from Pietermaritzburg to Durban after a surge from 15km out.

The Nedbank runner crossed the line at Kingsmead in 5h 14 min 01 sec, stripping more than four minutes off David Gatebe’s best time of 5:18:19 from 2019.

Then it was the turn of Steyn, who claimed the second Comrades crown of her career as she broke Frith van der Merwe’s 34-year-old best time for the “down run”.

Steyn, who smashed the “up time” when she won in her last outing in 2019, crossed the line in 5:44:54, almost 10 minutes better than the 5:54:43 mark from 1989.

She led from fairly early in the race, and slowly stretched her lead as she worked, smiled and waved her way along the route.

Their victories earned them each R1.2m, with R500,000 for the win, R500,000 for beating the mark and R200,000 for being the first South Africans home.

Well done

Van der Merwe sighed with relief on hearing Steyn had broken her record. The Benoni-based English teacher could not watch the end of the race after load-shedding kicked in at 10am, but she was impressed with Steyn’s time.

“That’s excellent. Well done to Gerda. It was a privilege holding the record and I’m really pleased she was the one to take it.

“And I like being out of the limelight,” she said, joking she was getting too old to appear in TV interviews. 

In the men’s race, Ayanda Ngcobo took the early lead and held it past the halfway mark in Drummond, but he had gone out too fast and paid the price, giving up and walking.

Japan’s blue-haired Jo Fukuda, who had been lying sixth at Drummond, moved into the lead just ahead of Aleksei Beresnev of Russia, but the two foreigners could also not sustain their challenges.

The Nedbank crew of Dijana, 2019 champion Edward Mothibi, Joseph Manyedi and Dutchman Pieter Wiersma, the bronze medallist at the 2022 world 100km championships, overtook them and worked together for a while before Dijana, still looking fresh, kicked on alone. Had the race been longer, he may have been caught by the fast-finishing Wiersma, who clocked 5:14:08, just seven seconds behind. 

Mothibi was third in 5:17:34. 

A tearful Dijana said: “It was only in the last 5km that I started thinking about the record. I’d like to dedicate this to my coach and my kids.

“My coach is actually not well, and he couldn’t be here today. He has always believed in me. I’ve been away from my kids for two months, so this is for them.”

For the women, 2022’s third-placed Adele Broodryk went one better to claim second in 5:56:26 and Carla Molinaro was third in 6:00:23 to complete an all-SA podium.

Steyn paid tribute to the supporters along the way.

“I felt I was being carried by people screaming and shouting for me, that definitely made the load feel [easier].

“The support that I received, not only today but every day, I can’t put it in words,” said Steyn, who smiled, waved and blew kisses at fans who lined the route from Pietermaritzburg to Durban.

“It felt today like I had an entire country screaming my name from start to finish. I can’t put in words how that made me feel.

“I wanted to run today not just for me, but for everyone who’s watching and everyone who’s perhaps been inspired by this because I wanted them to see that running is just awesome and the fact that we’ve got the Comrades Marathon here in our country, it’s massive and it’s magic.

“And so I run in that way and I acknowledge the crowds and I want to inspire them to become part of this.”