Men’s winner improves by 49 positions from 2019
Men’s winner Tete Dijana finished 50th in his only previous Comrades marathon. In 2019 Dijana finished in 6:25.03 but this year took almost an hour off that time for victory. It was the second time that Dijana had finished ahead of defending champion Eric Mothibi this year after he finished one place ahead of him (2nd) at the Nedbank Breaking Barriers event earlier this year. Both are coached by Dave Adams and hail from Mahikeng in the North West province.

Dijana averaged 3 minutes 40 seconds per kilometre for the 89.889km of the race. He went through halfway in 2:43.22 at an average page of 3:43 mins/km in fourth place. He ran the final 9km – after breaking clear through Westville – in a relatively slow 35:51. But he had a big enough lead over the rest of the field to ensure victory.

Mothibi’s impressive Comrades record
Despite finishing second in 2022, Mothibi has an incredible Comrades record. In 2018 he finished fourth on debut, after running in second for large parts of the race, before winning in 2019.

Week of drama for women’s winner
Russian athlete Alexandra Morozova was initially prevented from participating after the Comrades Marathon Association had followed a directive from World Athletics (via Athletics South Africa) to ban Russian athletes from participating. But the World Athletics directive was a given as a suggestion as world sports bodies have taken to banning Russian athletes in light of the war in Ukraine. But Morozova fought the ban using a local South African law firm to fight her case and the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruled that she could not be excluded.

After two second places (including in 2019) and a third in her three stats, Morozova finally captured her maiden Comrades title despite the week’s drama. Morozova clocked 6:17.48 at an average pace of 4:12 mins/km. She ran the final 9km in an impressive 40:48 and finished 50th overall.

Impressive debut for Broodryk
South Africa’s best women’s finisher Adele Broodryk led the race until Pinetown. She went through halfway in 2:47 running an average of 4:02 min/km eventually finishing third in 6:26.35.

Challenor crawls to dramatic finish
Local KZN favourite Jen Challenor finished sixth in her debut Comrades in 2019 but made an impressive improvement for fourth in 2022 despite having to crawl over the line after collapsing multiple times in the final 500m. Challenor struggled to get back into shape after suffering from post-Covid issues in 2021 making her performance at Comrades ’22 all the more impressive.

South Africa’s Domination
In the men’s race only one non-South African – Malawi’s Solly Manduwa – finished among the top 10 while only 7 internationals appeared in the top 20. Among the women, 7 South Africans dominated the top 10.

The finish stats

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