Gerda Steyn wins her fourth Comrades Marathon
At on stage near the end the gap between Steyn and second-placed Aleksandra Morozova of Russia was less than three minutes behind approaching the finish.
Steyn dug deep and ran into the People's Park finish strongly to take the win in an unconfirmed time of 5hrs 51min 19sec , well off her 5:44.54 in her 2022 win in the last down run in 2023.
The 2025 race would always have slower times given it was run over 89.98km, about 2km more than the last down run in 2023 won by Dijana because of a finish at the People's Park outside Moses Mabhida Stadium due to renovations to the 2010 Fifa World Cup semifinal venue.
However, Steyn did grimace and show unusual signs of strain in the last 10km coming into Durban.
The women's race best time record-holder added to her wins in 2019, 2023 and 2024.
Morozova - who cramped and walked just after the halfway stage, recuperated for a period and then ended strongly to apply pressure on Steyn - ended just four minutes later in 5:55:56.
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