Tete Dijana wins Comrades marathon in record time
- Sports
- June 11, 2023
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- 39
Nedbank Running Club’s Tete Dijana has won his back-to-back Men’s Comrades Marathon Race in a record down run time. The security guard from North West finished in a time of 05:13:58 to beat David Gatebe’s best down run time of 5:18:19 in 2016.
For his efforts, he won R1.2 million for finishing first, beating the record and being the first South African over the finish line.
Piet Wiersma and Edward Mothibi, also from Nedbank running club, finished second and third respectively.
TETE DIJANA REFLECTS ON COMRADES’ MARATHON WIN
“I was checking [at Pier Wiersma] because I wanted to relax. My friend [Wiersma] was coming. So I told myself to just reserve the energy for him because my legs were a little bit tired,” he told SuperSport TV.
“It was hard because the race was too fast. Edward came to me and told me these guys are fast. So I just decided to stay behind the guys and later on, decided to push it.
ON THE RECORD BREAKING TIME
“My coach told me that I must not break too much because next time we should break it again but my friend was giving me pleasure. So I had to break it like this.”
Another record for South Africa, Gerda Steyn has won the 2023 Comrades Marathon in a new down run record of 5:44:54 (unofficial). This is a second win for Gerda, having been champion in 2019.
She beat the 5:54:43 record that was set by Frith van der Merwe in 1989.
More to follow…