‘I kept asking Mothibi should we go? He kept saying no’: Comrades king Dijana

Tete Dijana scooped his second straight Comrades Marathon crown on Sunday, leaning heavily on the experience of teammate Edward Mothibi before shooting off to break the men’s Down Run mark.

It helped him win, but it also saw come close to a sprint finish against Nedbank teammate, flying Italy-based Dutchman Pieter Wiersma, who was left rueing leaving his charge too late.

Dijana crossed the line in 5 hrs 13 min 58 sec, well inside David Gatebe’s best Down time of 5:18:19 from 2016, not even three seconds in front of Wiersma.

Former champion Mothibi, Dijana’s friend training partner, was third in 5:17:34, also inside the old mark.

But for the first two-thirds of the 87.701km contest Dijana, Mothibi and their Nedbank teammates, including Wiersma, had to remain patient as rivals went out hard at the start.

Ayanda Ngcobo attacked over the first half, and after he quit Japan’s Jo Fukuda took over, but he too found himself running out of fuel as the Nedbank runners chased him down.

Dijana said the race plans discussed at Saturday’s team meeting were quickly nullified.

“These two guys were very fast for us. Yesterday we had a team talk and they broke our plan,” he said.

“I kept going to [Mothibi] and asking him should we go? He kept saying no. Later he said we’ll go at 60km.”

By the time the Nedbank crew had taken the lead, they were off record pace, but the defending champion wanted to ramp it up.

He looked around for Mothibi, who had accompanied him for much of last year’s race before finishing as runner-up. This time Mothibi couldn’t respond and Dijana hit the gas.

But in the last 5km he frequently looked over his shoulder for Wiersma.

“I was thinking I have to conserve some energy if it comes to a sprint,” said Dijana, who plans to invest his R1.2m winnings for his children.   

For Wiersma his second place was bittersweet.

“I mostly feel a bit disappointed because I know it could have been more maybe if I started speeding up sooner.

“But at the same time I thought Tete was very, very strong physically, but mentally even more I think, so he probably would have seen me coming and sped up as well,” said the masters student who finished third at the 2022 100km world championships.

He spoke about how the crowds lifted him along the way.

“With the audience pushing you on, it didn’t even feel difficult at times,” said Wiersma, who trains by himself and has yet to secure a sponsor.

“You’re constantly pushed. In some races there’s a decision you could get to make, like should I stop, should I slow down or whatever.

“On Comrades that’s not the case, you just push, push, push, because everybody says you should push. That’s what I did.”

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