Comrades Race Wrap: All the Stats and Facts
Total Distance: 89.98km
2025 was the 49th running of the ‘down’ run and the 98th race.

Men’s Race
- Tete Dijana (Nedbank) became a three-time winner of the Comrades Marathon when he won in 5 hours, 25 minutes 28 seconds.
- Dijana’s 2025 time was the ninth fastest time in history. Dijana holds the record for the ‘down’ run of 5:13.58 run in 2023
- Dijana is one of only 10 winners in history to have won the race three or more times. Only Vladimir Kotov, Stephen Muzhingi and Bongmusa Mthembu have won the race 3 times since 1990.
- Second-placed Piet Wiersma ran the ninth fastest time in ‘down’ run history this year. He also holds the second-fastest time of 5:14.01, set in 2023.
- Wiersma finished one second behind Dijana in 2023. This year, he was 5 seconds behind.
Women’s Race
- Gerda Steyn won her fourth Comrades Marathon in 5 hours 51 minutes 19 seconds and became only the third woman in history to win four or more races. Maureen Holland also has four wins, with Russian Elena Nurgalieva leading with eight wins.
- Steyn ran the second fastest time in history, only beaten by her own time of 5:44.54 in 2023. However, this year’s course was 2.2km longer than in 2023.
- Steyn’s pace of 3:55 mins/km was, however, a record pace for the ‘down’ run and earned her an extra R500 000 from sponsors Cell C on top of the R874 000 first prize.

Finishers
Total starters: 20 970
Total finishers: 18 208 (86.82%)
Non finishers: 2762
Medals (*unofficial)
33 Sub-6 Wally Hayward
719 Sub 7:30 Silver
2844 Sub-9 Bill Rowan
3203 Sub-10 Robert Mtshali
4812 Sub-11 Bronze
6587 Sub-12 Vic Clapham
Most Finishes
Louis Massyn became the first runner to finish 50 Comrades Marathons. Helped by his teammates, Massyn finished in 11:53.14. The 74-year-old ran his first Comrades in 1973 and only missed the 2022 edition due to a kneww injury.
* The entry fee for Massyn’s first Comrades was R4.
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Oldest finishers
Johannes Mosehla, 83. He broke his own record as the oldest finisher in history in 11:47.27. Mark Headbush was the second oldest finisher in 11:32.53.
The oldest female finisher was 73-year-old Linda Icely in 11:52.36
Youngest finishers:
Xander McNeil, 20 11:56.44
*the oldest finisher beat the youngest finisher by nine minutes
Average age:
44.5
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