CHAMPION Tete Dijana won his third Comrades Marathon title on sunday. Picture: Sibonelo Ngcobo/Independent Media

Image: Sibonelo Ngcobo/Independent Media

Tete Dijana won his third Comrades Marathon title in time of five hours, 25 minutes 27 (5:25:28) in a tense finish in Durban on Sunday.

Dijana out-duelled defending champion Piet Wiersma, to add to the titles he won in 2022 and 2023.

Wiersma crossed the line (5:25:33) less than 1o seconds after Dijana. Nikolai Volkov was third in 5:29:42.

In a race in which a couple of runners went out like pacemakers for the first half of the race, before they burnt out – the real race took place further back. Dijana moved into the lead with 16k left.

It came down to the final 8.5km of the down run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, in which Dijana running at the front would outlast Wiersma.

At that point, Dijana clung to a 44-second lead over Wiersma. With 4km left, the lead was 51 seconds.

Historic start

Earlier, in a first for the Comrades Marathon, the elites went off 15 minutes ahead of the rest of the field in what was an attempt to alleviate some of the congestion of runners at the start.

Onalenna Khonkhobe was the first athlete to make a major break in the race, and by the two-hour mark he had amassed an eight-minute lead over Mbuti Mollo, and a staggering 19 minutes over a large group of runners which was the main chase pack.

At the 2h12 mark though, Khonkhobe showed his first signs of fatigue as he suddenly stopped running and began walking.

Though he carried on running after a few steps, the crack were beginning to show.

Just 10 minutes later, Khonkhobe also began clutching his left hamstring on some strides, just showing he was really beginning to cramp up.

Further back, Mollo just after the halfway mark also began to start walking for the first time as the chasing pack were rapidly closing the gap.

Khonkhobe had amassed a 4km lead at the 2h31 minute mark, when he again stopped and grabbed his hamstring once more, looking like he had been shot by an invisible sniper.

Looking like his race was finally done, he began running shortly afterwards.

Ironically at about the same time, Mollo also began walking again and he looked to be unable to start running again.

Though he did resume running eventually, at the next fuelling station, Mollo stopped again to grab a drink and a potato, as he prepared to be caught by the chasing pack imminently.