ELITE RACE
Edward Mothibi and Tete Dijana take the lead from long-time frontrunner Onalenna Khonkhobe late in the 2025 race
Tete Dijana
Another runner looking to make history will be threetime winner Bongmusa Mthembu( 2014, 2017 and 2018), who currently has 11 gold medals in the race. That puts him tied for second place for most golds with Bruce Fordyce. Mthembu finished eighth last year, and if he can claim another gold in 2026, he will move to 12, and tied first with Robb. Like Dijana, Mthembu could also move to four wins this year, which would also put him tied with Robb!
Men’ s Contenders to Watch
The elite field features another two former South African winners amongst the returning 2025 gold medallists – Edward Mothibi( 2019) and David Gatebe( 2016) – who were fourth and seventh last year respectively, and they will be joined by Russians Nikolai Volkov( third in 2025) and Vasilii Korytkin( 10th), South Africans Joseph Manyedi( fifth) and Gordon Lesetedi( ninth), and Alex Milne of the UK( sixth).
Outside of the returning gold medallists, the men’ s field includes some notable contenders that may challenge for the podium or gold medals on race day. These include SA’ s George Kusche, a former sub-four-minute miler who finished 12th in the 2025 Comrades Marathon, and has been picked by several pundits as a favourite for this year’ s race. Another local favourite is Onalenna Khonkhobe, who led the race until about 20km to go last year, and has posted a number of terrific wins or results in various ultramarathons around the country over the past year.
Fifth Win on the Cards for Steyn
In the women’ s race, Steyn will be looking to claim her fourth win in a row since 2022, and fifth overall, and she will be running full of confidence, having recently won the Totalsports Two Oceans Marathon powered by BYD for the seventh consecutive time. She dominated the Cape Town race while once again making it look easy.
Steyn, who won the Comrades Marathon in 2019, 2023, 2024 and 2025, is already in clear second place on the all-time list of women’ s winners, with only Elena Nurgalieva ahead of her: 8 wins – Elena Nurgalieva 4 wins – Gerda Steyn 3 wins – Lettie van Zyl, Helen Lucre, Frith van der Merwe, Maria Bak
Another victory in 2026 would move Steyn up to five wins, making her just the second women and seventh runner overall to take five wins in the history of the race. Until Fordyce( 9) and Nurgalieva( 8) set their records for the most wins, five wins was considered a legendary feat at the Comrades Marathon, and Steyn richly deserves to be included in that conversation, alongside legends such as Arthur Newton and Wally Hayward.
More Women Racing for Top Honours
However, as dominant as Steyn has been in recent years, there will be a number of women determined to cut her reign short. Also running will be eight of the other nine gold medallists from last year: Kenyan Shelmisth Muriuki( third), South Africans Irvette van Zyl( fourth) and Jenet Mbhele( seventh), Poland’ s Dominika Stelmach( fifth), the UK’ s Carla Molinaro( sixth) and Melissah Gibson( 10th), Caitriona Jennings of the Republic of Ireland( eighth), and the USA’ s Courtney Olsen( ninth).
While Kenyan runners dominate the global marathon events, they have traditionally not fared that well in South African ultra-marathons. That’ s why Muriuki’ s third place last year in her Comrades Marathon debut really caught the eye, and many are looking to see if she can push on from that this year. Meanwhile, Van Zyl appears to have come into a rich vein of form –
Also look out for current World 100km Champion Aleksandr Sorokin( Lithuania), who will be making his Comrades Marathon debut, as will Charles Lawrence, holder of the US 100km Record and who set a World Record for 50 miles( approximately 80km) in 2023. Making a return will be French 100km Record-holder Guillaume Ruel, who will undoubtedly look to do better than last year’ s 7:03 for 344th place.
Piet Wiersma Nikolai Volkov
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