Comrades Marathon 2026 | Página 79

ELITE RACE

THE TOP CONTENDERS

Steyn( both of South Africa) – will be running again in 2026.
“ All the signs are that this should be another thrilling race, not just in terms of proven gold medallists, but also with the addition of a number of very fast marathoners and ultra-marathoners from both South Africa and abroad, including world-class 100km competitors. We’ re looking forward to seeing who claims the podium spots and a share of the biggest prize purse in the history of the Comrades Marathon,” says Race Director Sue Forge.
The top contenders will be racing for a slice of a total prize purse of R5,790,400 across the top 10 positions, individual prizes, age categories, and team prizes for men and women, including prize money for the first South African finisher and top three KwaZulu-Natal athletes. The men’ s and women’ s winners will each take home R925,000. A further R2,420,000 is on offer for various records or time incentives, taking the total prize monies available to R8,210,400.
Images: Comrades Marathon Association
While it is impossible to predict exactly who will win the Comrades Marathon, or even make the top 10 gold medal positions, one can still pick a few top contenders that are likely to feature prominently on race day. – BY SEAN FALCONER
Gerda Steyn

The 2026 Comrades Marathon will once again see a world-class field of elite athletes take to the roads between Durban and Pietermaritzburg, at the head of a field of 21,677 runners in the 99th edition of The Ultimate Human Race. The race will start in front of the Durban City Hall and finish 85.777km later at the Hollywoodbets Scottsville Racecourse in Pietermaritzburg.

The elite race is shaping up to be another hotly contested competition, with nearly all of the top 10 men and women from the 2025 race due to line up once again in 2026 – the only missing face from these 20 athletes will be women’ s 2022 winner Alexandra Morozova, who finished as runner-up last year. This means that both defending champions – three-time men’ s winner Tete Dijana and four-time women’ s winner Gerda
“ We have made sure that the top contenders in the 2026 edition of the Comrades Marathon have 8.2 million reasons to give everything they have on the route from Durban to Pietermaritzburg,” continues Forge.“ This race has always produced world-class performances, and this considerable prize purse reflects the status of both the race and the elite field we have running this year.”
Dijana Looking for First Up Run Win
Having won the Down Run in 2022, 2023 and 2025, Dijana will be looking to win the Up Run for the first time.( The 2022 and 2023 races were both run‘ down’ following the disruptions of the COVID pandemic.) However, he will likely face tough competition from his perennial rival, Dutchman Piet Wiersma, who won the last Up Run in 2024 and finished second behind Dijana in both 2023 and 2025.
If Dijana does win again in 2026, he will join the legendary Alan Robb on four wins, and this would also put him joint third on the men’ s list of multiple winners, and make him just the seventh man to win the race four times or more – and just one away from joining the ranks of some of the all-time Comrades Marathon greats with five wins: 9 wins – Bruce Fordyce 5 wins – Arthur Newton, Hardy Ballington, Wally Hayward, Jackie Mekler 4 wins – Alan Robb 3 wins – Dave Bagshaw, Stephen Muzhingi, Vladimir Kotov, Bongmusa Mthembu, Tete Dijana
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