INSPIRATION
THIRD RECIPIENT: Pogiso Maroku
Pogiso Maroku is a member of the South African National Defence Force and runs for the Pretoria Military Marathon Club. In his first Comrades in 2024, he showed the true spirit of Comrades while demonstrating that, as a soldier, you don’ t leave anyone behind. With the clock ticking down to the final cut-off and 10km still to go, he came upon a struggling fellow SANDF runner, the grandmaster and Double Green Number-holder Peter Johnstone, and decided to stay with him. Together with another runner, Lukanyo Mncono, he helped Peter reach the finish to claim his 27th medal. Even though it was Pogiso’ s first Comrades, it was more important for him to help his fellow SANDF member to finish the race, and this while he was struggling with a knee injury himself. Thankfully, he also made it over the line in 11 hours, 56 minutes and 20 seconds, just a few seconds behind Peter and Lukanyo.
Additional Awards
The GEMS Spirit of Comrades Awards Gala also celebrates a number of other annual awards by the CMA.
CMA LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD: Louis Massyn
This new award was presented to an athlete who has demonstrated sustained exceptional performance over an extended period of time, or has broken a significant milestone or barrier in the history of the Comrades Marathon. Our first recipient of this award, Louis Massyn, has done both. Louis ran his first Comrades in 1973, and he says simply,“ I was hooked.” He went on to finished the race 47 times consecutively up till 2019, then added three more from 2023, meaning he completed his 50th Comrades Marathon in 2025, making him the first athlete to reach this significant milestone – and this at the age of 74! Louis’ lifetime commitment to The Ultimate Human Race is beyond extraordinary, and what makes this award even more special is that it was made on his 75th Birthday!
CMA JOURNALIST OF THE YEAR: Bob Norris
This award is presented to the journalist who has covered the race most extensively during the year, as independently verified by Newsclip Media Monitoring. Bob Norris has been writing for the Daily Dispatch for 45 years, has a weekly community radio slot, and was also formerly a columnist for SA Runner magazine. He was bitten by the Comrades bug in 1977, when he was listening to radio coverage of Alan Robb claiming his second victory. Bob decided he also wanted to run the Comrades, and ran his first in 1979, going on to obtain his Green Number in 1994 in his final run. After a lifetime of writing about all things running, including many articles on the Comrades Marathon, Bob still says:“ Comrades is an integral part of life.”
CMA TOP CHARITY FUNDRAISER OF THE YEAR: Mahesh Ratanjee
This award is presented to an individual who has made an exceptional effort to raise funds for one or more of the six official Comrades charities, and raised the most funds for the year. This year’ s winner, Mahesh Ratanjee, scooped the same award last year, when he raised nearly R200,000 for his charity of choice, the Community Chest Durban and Pietermaritzburg. In 2025, he added another R320,000 to the amount he has raised. Tragically, Mahesh and his wife lost their daughter a few years ago, and he says this is what motivates him to run the Comrades Marathon for a greater purpose, to provide care for children through the Community Chest’ s Early Childhood Development programme.
TOP CLUB TO RAISE FUNDS FOR CHARITY AWARD: Run Zone Athletics Club
This new award is presented to the registered running club with the highest number of individual members officially entered in the race and who each raise the minimum target as set by the CMA for one or more of the CMA’ s six official charities, through its official Race4Charity fundraising platform. This year the club that walks away with this prestigious award, is Run Zone Athletics Club, which had 310 members finishing the race, an between them, the club’ s members raised R176,267 for Race4Charity.
TOP INTERNATIONAL AMBASSADOR AWARD: Tiago Dionisio
This new award is presented to an ambassador who has delivered an exceptional performance in promoting the Comrades Marathon brand internationally. Tiago Dionisio is an economist based in Lisbon, and is the Comrades International Ambassador in Portugal. He has completed 850 marathons and ultras, including 23 Comrades Marathons since 2001. Tiago is also passionate about raising funds for charity, and he has twice cycled from Cape Town to Pietermaritzburg in 10 days and run the Comrades on the 11th day as part of the Unogwaja Challenge.* This award recognises Tiago’ s selfless contribution to the Comrades Marathon over many years.
HERMES AWARD: Steven Maliszewski
This new award is presented to an individual who has made an exceptional contribution in spreading the message of Comrades. Steven Maliszewski is a 12-time Comrades finisher, running club coach and volunteer from Texas, who has recruited numerous international friends and fellow runners to Comrades along the way. Most importantly, he has been spreading a message of hope by tirelessly raising funds for the Ethembeni School, which lies on the Comrades route and provides education and care for children with physical disabilities and visual impairments. Since 2012, he has raised R1,5 million for the school, and these funds help provide mobility aids, learning tools and opportunities for the children.
CMA CHAIRPERSONíS AWARD: Pie- Pacifique Kabalira-Uwase
This special award honours an individual whose touching story has inspired and motivated others, and the 2025 winner is Pie-Pacifique Kabalira-Uwase. Born in Rwanda, he witnessed the atrocities of the Rwandan Genocide in 1994, and at the age of 20, embarked on an uncertain journey that led him to settle in South Africa. Beginning his new life here as a car guard, he fought his way to university, obtained a degree in Physics after being awarded a scholarship, later started a career in banking, and ultimately became a successful businessman. He also authored the book: Witnessing – from the Rwandan Tragedy to healing in South Africa. Certainly not daunted by challenges, this year he set out to tackle the Comrades Marathon, finishing in 11 hours, 58 minutes and 45 seconds.
LONG SERVICE AWARDS: Lauretta Dunn, Biddulphs and Form-scaff
Also known as the Green Name Awards, these awards are presented to volunteers, partners or service providers who have demonstrated long-standing commitment to the Comrades Marathon.
• Lauretta Dunn has diligently served the Comrades Marathon as a volunteer for 45 years. Her passion for running started in the early 1980’ s when she volunteered at the Comrades Expo, which motivated her to eventually pursue her dream of running the race herself. She went on to earn three medals from six starts, but is recognised here for more than four decades of dedicated service to the race.
• For 41 years, Biddulphs International has been the official tog bag supplier of the race. What started as a simple service has grown into a masterclass in race logistics, and today, Biddulphs deploys approximately 100 staff and 28 vehicles on race day to ensure the flawless, secure transport of nearly 10,000 runners’ tog bags from start to finish.
• For the past four decades, Form-scaff has proudly partnered with the Comrades Marathon, supporting the iconic event with essential scaffolding structures at both the start and finish, consistently ensuring safe pedestrian bridges, PA towers, advertising towers, and seating stands.
2026 Nominations Opening Soon
Watch the Comrades Marathon platforms for an announcement shortly after this year’ s race for the opening of the nomination process for the 2026 GEMS Spirit of Comrades Awards. You will be asked to download, fill in and submit a nomination form, including a short motivation for your Spirit of Comrades Award nomination.
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