Flying Dutchman Piet Wiersma wins Comrades Marathon

Piet Wiersma of the Netherlands was the convincing men’s winner of the Comrades Marathon up run on Sunday, crossing the finish line in Pietermaritzburg in 5hr 25min 00sec.

Wiersma just missed out on Leonid Shvetsov’s record of 5:24:39 by 21sec. His time is the second-fastest in the men’s race.

Nedbank Running Club teammate Dan Matshailwe was second in 5:25:40. Ethiopian Degefa Lafebo was third in 5:27:45.

Wiersma, who finished 3sec behind Tete Dijana in second in the 2023 down run, thrived with his strength going up, pulling away with a break on the notorious climb up Polly Shortts and opening the gap outside Pietermaritzburg.

Dijana, winner of the successive down runs in 2020 and 2021, could not join a group of five men who have won a ‘hat-trick’ with three successive Comrades’ in the 103-year history of SA’s premier road running event.

The first up run since 2019 took place over a relatively short 85.9km route from the 5am start in Doctor Pixley Kaseme Street in front of Durban’s City Hall to the finish at Scottsville Race Course in Pietermaritzburg.

Lesotho’s Jobo Khatoane led for about two hours in the first half before predictably dropping to obscurity.

Russian Aleksei Beresnev took the lead from Khatoane around halfway through the Thousand Hills. But his surge also came too soon.

A chasing group of Dijana, Dan Moselakwe, Wiersma and Lafebo passed Beresnev just past the Comrades’ highest point at Umlaas Road, past Camperdown.

Soon after that another Nedbank runner, Edward Mothibi, who had dropped off the pace, came into sight of the front four.

Wiersma, who had prioritised training on hills for six weeks in Kenya, made a move up Polly Shortts, pulling away as Matshailwe, another Nedbank runner who earlier dropped the pace, came through chasing into second with Lafebo in third.

After the last up run in 2019 the 2020 and 2021 Comrades were cancelled due to Covid-19 and the 2022 and 2023 races were down runs due to roadworks on the N3 outside Pietermaritzburg.