News article

The winners were feted on Monday morning at the exclusive, annual Comrades Marathon Champions Prizegiving Breakfast, hosted by the Southern Sun Elangeni Hotel in Durban, with the final prize-winning results announced shortly thereafter. In attendance were the two winners along with other top performers across the open, team and age categories, CMA sponsors and partners, government dignitaries, road-running officials and the media.

The 2026 Comrades Marathon offered a combined prize purse of over R8.2-million in prize money and incentive bonuses, rewarding the top performing runners well for their race-day efforts. A prize purse of R5,790,400 was on offer across the top 10 positions, individual prizes, age categories, and team prizes for men and women, including prize money for the first South African finisher and top three KwaZulu-Natal athletes. For the first time, the prize money in the 70+ age category extended to second and third places, instead of just the first place in that category.

A further R2,420,000 was on offer for various records or time incentives, taking the total prize monies available to R8,210,400, which represents a 10% increase across all categories on the total prize monies on offer in the 2025 edition of the race.

STANDOUT MEN'S RESULTS
George Kusche won the men’s race in 5:15:56, shattering Leonid Shvetsov’s 18-year-old Up Run Record of 5:24:49 (2008), and he also set a new Best Average Pace record for the Up Run of 3:40.99 per kilometre, bettering the 3:43.75/km set by Vladimir Kotov in 2000. Add in the prize money for being first South African over the line, his prize monies come to R2,322,000.

Second over the line was Dutchman Piet Wiersma, the 2024 winner and defending champion in the Up Run, who finished in 5:19:36. Third home was SA’s Mbuti Mollo, in 5:21:31, and he also claimed the Cell C Hot Spot prize for being first finisher through the Camperdown timing point, as well as the prize for first male novice finisher.

The fourth and fifth finishers, Great Britain’s Alex Milne (5:22:29) and Japan’s Haruki Okayama (5:24:46) also dipped under the previous Up Run best time. Current 50km World Champion Milne continued moving up through the positions, having finished 15th, ninth and sixth in his three previous Comrades Marathons, while former 100km World Champion Okayama claimed a gold medal on debut at the Comrades Marathon.

Sixth place went to 50-mile World Record-holder Charlie Lawrence of the USA, while SA’s Lloyd Bosman took seventh place after passing a cramping Nikolai Volkov just metres from the line. Behind them, Vasilii Korytkin took ninth place and another local athlete, Tebogo Pulusa was 10^th man home. Volkov’s disappointment at having to be content with ninth position may have been slightly tempered by also claiming first place in the 40-49 age category.

Of the four South Africans amongst the top 10 men, Mollo, Bosman and Pulusa all claimed a gold medal in their Comrades Marathon debut runs. Also, of the top10, four were all also gold medallists in 2025 – Wiersma, Volkov, Milne and Korytkin. Meanwhile, in the team competitions, Nedbank Running Club KZN took top honours in the men’s elite category, while the men’s open category was won by Impala Marathon Club NWN, followed by Maxed Elite KZN. The Impala team also claimed the men’s 40-49 team prize.

In terms of the age spectrum, the youngest finisher was 20-year-old Ruan Uys, who clocked 7:35:56, while the trophy for the oldest finisher was once again presented to 84-year-old Johannes Mosehla. In finishing the race in 11:12:26, Mosehla also extended his own record as the oldest finisher in Comrades history. He claimed this record in 2023, aged 81, beating the record set by 80-year-old Wally Hayward in 1989, and has now rewritten the record books four years in a row.

STANDOUT WOMEN'S RESULTS
Gerda Steyn cruised to her third Up Run victory and fifth Comrades Marathon title overall, with an impressive time of 5:44:53. This was well inside her own record for the women’s Up Run of 5:49:46, which she set in 2024. Like Kusche, Steyn also set a new Best Average Pace for the Up Run, with 4:01.24 per kilometre to beat the previous best of 4:04.28/km that she set in 2024. To add to her incredible day, Steyn was also the first woman through the Cell C Hot Spot in Camperdown, and she was part of the Hollywood Athletics Club team that claimed the Women’s Elite Team prize. With these additional prizes, her earnings for the day jumped to R2,388,192.

Second over the line was Zimbabwean Nobukhosi Tshuma, who finished in 5:53:36 and improved greatly on her fifth-place finish in the 2024 edition of the race, having made terrific personal sacrifices to train for this race in Kenya. Third place went to SA’s Irvette van Zyl in 6:02:30, one position better than the fourth place she achieved in her Comrades Marathon debut last year, and she described the Up Run as one of the hardest things she’d ever done.

Fourth was Kenyan Shelmith Muruiki (6:06:38), last year’s third-place finisher, who also took first place in the women’s 40-49 age category, with Great Britain’s Naomi Robinson fifth in 6:07:55, and improving considerably on last year’s 15th place in her Comrades Marathon debut. Another Zimbabwean, Loveness Madziva, was sixth, also improving considerably from the 13th place she recorded in her previous out in the event in 2024, while the USA’s Courtney Olsen took seventh place and added a third consecutive gold medal to her Comrades Marathon haul.

In eighth position, Dikiledi Majara gave Lesotho its first female gold medal in Comrades Marathon history, while ninth place went to a third Sout African in the top 10, Jenet Mbhele, extending her record as the first black South African woman to achieve four gold medals in the Comrades Marathon. Similarly, 10th-placed Carla Molinaro of Great Britain, the current 50km World Champion, extended her Comrades Marathon gold collection to five. The first female novice to finish was another Brit, Stephanie McCall, who crossed the line in 17^th place in 6:52:10.

As mentioned earlier, the Hollywood Athletics Club team took top honours in the women’s elite team category, while the open category was won by Ubora Athletics Club, with Nedbank Running Club CG finishing as runners-up. The same Ubora team also claimed the women’s 40-49 team prize.

The youngest female finisher was 20-year-old Bailey O’Leary (Great Britain), who was home in 10:42:51, while the oldest was a 74-year-old visitor from the USA, Auzanne Koonce, who crossed the line in 10:43:24, less than a minute behind the youngest female finisher.

CONGRATULATIONS EXTENDED
Commenting after the Champions Prizegiving Breakfast, CMA General Manager Alain Dalais congratulated all the 2026 Comrades Marathon award-winners, saying, “It’s an honour to recognise the best of the best in our 99th Comrades Marathon, starting with winners George Kusche and Gerda Steyn. These two superb athletes proved they were the best on the day, winning multiple prizes on offer, and they have been richly rewarded for their world-class performances with over R2-million in prize money each.”

“Here our thanks must go to our sponsor Cell C for their contribution to the increased prize purse for the 2026 race,” continues Dalais. “Besides sponsoring the Cell C Hot Spot and Cell C Average Pace bonus incentives, they contributed a substantial portion of the prize money for the top 10 men and women through the Cell C Top Ups that were added to the prize purse for these positions, and thus helped to incentivise the record-breaking performances that lit up the 2026 race!”

Dalais, concludes, “We take immense pride in celebrating all of our award-winners, from the winners and elite athletes in the top 10, through the top three in each age category and winning teams in both elite and recreational categories, to the youngest and oldest finishers. In particular, we congratulate 84-year-old Johannes Mosehla for extending his own record as the oldest ever finisher of the race, and for once again proving that age is just a number. Most importantly, we thank all of these athletes for contributing to an unforgettable racing spectacle.”

A list of all award-winners appears below. For the full results of the 2026 Comrades Marathon, runners can go to the Comrades Marathon website, click on the Race Info link, then click on the 2026 Results link (https://comrades.com/2026-entry-list).

Final Results of the 2026 Comrades Marathon

Top 10 Men

Top 10 Women

First South African Man

First South African Woman

Top 3 KwaZulu-Natal Men

Top 3 KwaZulu-Natal Women

Cell C Hot Spot Men’s Winner

Cell C Hot Spot Women’s Winner

Cell C Average Pace Men’s Winner

Previous Best Average Pace: 3:43.75/km – Vladimir Kotov (2000), Distance 87.300km, Finish Time 5:19:52

Cell C Average Pace Women’s Winner

Previous Best Average Pace: 4:04.28/km – Gerda Steyn (2024), Distance 85.910km, Finish Time 5:49:13

Team Prize: Elite Men

Team Prize: Elite Women

Top 3 Men 40-49

Top 3 Women 40-49

Top 3 Men 50-59

Top 3 Women 50-59

Top 3 Men 60-69

Top 3 Women 60-69

Top 3 Men 70+

Top 3 Women 70+

Team Prize: Men 20-39

Team Prize: Women 20-39

Team Prize: Men 40+

Team Prize: Women 40+

First Novice Man

First Novice Woman

Youngest Male Finisher

Youngest Female Finisher

Oldest Male Finisher

Oldest Female Finisher