Comrades Marathon 2024 results: Gerda Steyn takes third title and SMASHES record as Piet Wiersma wins tight battle

South African Gerda Steyn smashed her own ‘up’ record at the 2024 Comrades Marathon, as she beat 2022 champion Alexandra Morozova to take her third title.

The 34-year-old from Bothaville holds the ‘up’ and ‘down’ record, and now sits behind only seven-time winner Elena Nurgalieva for the number of women’s titles won.

On the men’s side, Dutchman Piet Wiersma took the tape after a hard fought victory, and he just missed out on breaking the 16-year-old course record by 21 seconds.

Men’s race – Wiersma finally gets his win

After losing out to Tete Dijana by a matter of seconds last year, Wiersma wasn’t going to let that happen again in 2024, and the Dutchman broke away from the field after Umlaas Road and never looked back.

Over the opening stages, Wiersma remained patient, and slowly moved himself up from 86th at the first checkpoint in Pinetown to 10th at Drummond and then finally in to the lead at Umlaas Road.

By Mkondeni, the only other athlete within touching distance was Dan Moselakwe, +0:48 back, and despite a late surge, the South African couldn’t reel in ‘The Flying Dutchman’ and was forced to settle for second.

Clocking a time of 5:25:00, Wiersma came agonizingly close to the ‘up’ record set in 2008 by Leonid Shvetsov, whose time of 5:24:39 lives to see another day.

Moselakwe, finishing +0:45 back, was the top South African finisher, with Ethiopian Degefa Yohannese Lafebo finishing in third, a further two minutes in arrears. Another South African, Joseph Manyedi was fourth, with Britain’s Andrew Davies rounding out the Top 5.

Women’s race – Unstoppable Steyn wins big

Having won the last three editions between them, it looked likely to be a straight shootout between Steyn and Morozova in the women’s race, but such was the domination of Steyn, the Russian could not get close to her.

Part of a lead pack of three athletes through the first major checkpoint at Pinetown, Steyn then pulled away from the field, and from then on started to build an insurmountable lead, as it became a race between her and the clock.

The only woman in history to break the six hour barrier on the ‘up’ course, when she set the existing record of 5.58.53, Steyn was relentless in her bid to make more history, with the impact of her efforts unfolding behind her.

Winning by over 15 minutes, Steyn obliterated her previous record by almost ten minutes to become the first woman ever to break 5:50 with a new course record of 5:49:46. Morozova, the defending ‘up’ champion, finished in second, in a time of 6:05:12.

In third was American Courtney Olsen, just ahead of South African Carla Molinaro. Rounding out the Top 5 was Nobukhosi Tshuma of Uganda in a time of 6:12:18.

2024 Comrades Marathon Results

Comrades Marathon (Men), Sunday 9 June 2024, 85.8km

1. Piet Wiersma (NED) – 5:25:00
2. Dan Moselakwe (RSA) – 5:25:45
3. Degefa Yohannese Lafebo (ETH) – 5:27:48

Comrades Marathon (Women), Sunday 9 June 2024, 85.8km

1. Gerda Steyn (RSA) – 5:49:46
2. Aleksandra Morozova (RUS) – 6:05:12
3. Courtney Olsen (USA) – 6:08:09