Chairperson of the Comrades Marathon Association Mqondisi Ngcobo says the 2023 ultra marathon was a huge success. Ngcobo was speaking at the champions price giving ceremony in Durban on Monday.
Over 17 000 athletes participated in the 87.7 km race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban on Sunday.
Tete Dijana successfully defended his title and broke the men’s down run record finishing in 5 hours 13 minutes and 58 seconds.
Gerda Steyn won in the women’s race, also breaking the down-run record formerly held by Frith van der Merwe.
Steyn finished in 5 hours 44 minutes and 54 seconds.
Ngcobo says South Africans have much to celebrate.
”For the first time, we had the highest number of international runners participate in our events. That is a good advert for our sports. Sunday 11 June 2023 will go down as a day in which history books were re-written. This day never disappointed me. It took place in a day when Gerda Steyn raised the bar by almost 10 minutes which is a massive, massive achievement.”
Meanwhile, the oldest runner in the 2023 Comrades Marathon 81-year-old Maros Mosehla has received a standing ovation at the champion’s prize-giving ceremony in Durban.
He finished the race in 9 hours and 26 minutes. Mosehla who is a bricklayer from Limpopo ran his 10th Comrades. He says continuous training and healthy living are what motivates him to keep going.
“Motivation keeps running because when you run your body becomes strong and able to fight diseases. If you keep training and running it keeps you young. Look at me you can see I still look young because it is the training, running. I have been participating in sports for a long time since 1963 when I was at school.”
