RUNNER from Netherlands, Piet Wiersma, has threatened last year’s Comrades Marathon champion, Tete Dijana, that it is not over between them as they will face each other again in this year’s race, on Sunday.
This year’s Comrades of 85.777km will be run on Sunday at 5 am, up run from Durban City Hall, Durban, ending in Scottsville, Pietermaritzburg.
In 2023, Wiersma started running the Comrades and finished second behind Dijana who won the race in the down run.
In 2024, Wiersma came back and won in the up run with a time of 5:25:00, his rival Dijana finished in 14th place.
Last year in the down run, Wiersma finished second in 5:25:33.
Wiersma, who belongs to the Nedbank Running Club, is now an “enemy” to Dijana who was his colleague at Nedbank as Dijana joined the Hollywood Athletic Club in January with his colleague Edward Mothibi.
“This year there have been changes in my training but I have confidence in the way I fall. I expect anything from this year’s race but I am determined to do well without putting pressure on myself because I was the last to win the up run.
“But it’s not over between me and Dijana,” Wiersma said at a press conference at Southern Sun Langeni Hotel, Durban, yesterday.
Dijana, who has won Comrades three times in the down run since winning it for the first time in 2022, is still challenged to win this race for the first time in the up run.
“I have no pressure and I have come to run to defend the title in this year’s race.
“But what I can say is that I am determined to do well and I am determined to finally win the race inup run. I am prepared enough to handle it in this race,” he said.
Other runners who are being watched this year are Mothibi, Bongumusa Mthembu and Aleksandr Sorokin from Lithuania, who will be running Comrades for the first time.
Gerda Steyn of the Hollywood Athletics Club has been in the race for three consecutive years, holding both records in theup run and indown run. He made it clear that he is determined to continue producing the same results in this race and this year.
Other ladies who are looking to marry Steyn include Irvette Van Zyl, Carla Molinaro from the United Kingdom, Jenet Mbhele from this country and Dikeledi Majara from Lesotho.