Champ Dijana may skip 2024 Comrades as he dreams of Paris

Comrades king Tete Dijana says he will give the 2024 edition of the iconic ultra-marathon a miss if he makes the South African Olympic team for the Paris Games next year.

The 35-year-old security guard at North West University’s Mahikeng campus, who says he weighs just 39kg, is considering entering the Cape Town Marathon in October to try for a fast time.

“I’m just going to rest for a month and see which marathon I can go and run,” he said on Monday at the Comrades breakfast in Durban where he was presented with his medals, trophies and prize money of R1.2m.

He received R500,000 for winning Sunday’s race, R500,000 for setting a new Down best time with his 5 hr 13 min 58 sec effort and another R200,000 for being the first South African home.

But it’s doubtful whether he will bid for a rare third consecutive Comrades crown next year.

“I want to check Cape Town Marathon and see how I will perform there. I just want to achieve a better time, maybe running sub 2:09, 2:08.

“I would love [to go the Olympics],” added Dijana, who set the 2:39:04 world 50km record in Gqeberha earlier this year, breaking Stephen Mokoka’s mark in February.

He does not have an official time for the standard marathon, but on his way to 50km history he passed the 42.2km mark in 2:12.

The Olympic marathon is scheduled for August 11 2024, which will be nine weeks after the June 9 Comrades, making it impossible to do both. The date of next year's Comrades has yet to be announced, but it will almost certainly be too close to the global showpiece.

Zimbabwean Stephen Muzhingi is the only man to have won three straight Comrades titles this millennium. Before that the feat was achieved by Bruce Fordyce, Alan Robb, Dave Bagshaw and Arthur Newton.

Dijana, whose victory last year was also from Pietermaritzburg to Durban, is one of two defending champions in Comrades history not to have won the race in both directions, along with Derek Preiss who scored two Up victories in 1974 and 1975. Muzhingi’s first two victories were both Down runs, in 2009 and 2010, before he added the Up title in 2011.

Father-of-two Dijana, who had to take leave to train and run the race, said his diminutive stature had not been a disadvantage in his line of work, though his calm demeanour and sense of humour are likely to help.

“I haven’t had to take down a big man. We work with students, so it’s relaxed.”

The Elangeni Hotel, which hosted the Comrades post-race breakfast function, resembled a battleground with many runners hobbling around the lobby. 

Dijana walked normally, though he admitted he was experiencing some pain. “Ja, my legs are sore.”

Dutch runner-up Pieter Wiersma didn’t display any discomfort either, showing some good pace as he ran for his boarding gate at King Shaka Zulu airport later to make his flight to Johannesburg on his way out the country.

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