2023 Comrades Marathon Top Contenders
Bongmusa Mthembu (Arthur Ford) – 4th, 2022
Dubbed the greatest ultramarathoner in the world in 2018 by virtue of his 5th in Two Oceans, 3rd at the World 100km Championships and his win in the 2018 Comrades Marathon, Bongmusa Mthembu - Bongs to his friends - brings with him an ultrarunning record that cannot be ignored. After a ‘slow’ start to his ultra career when finished 54th in the 2006 edition of the Comrades Marathon, and taking a couple of years to learn how to run the race (31st – 2007, 52nd -2008), Mthembu has featured in the top ten at Comrades on nine of his last 11 runs; and on the podium seven times, with three wins.
He has also finished 2nd and 3rd at the World 100km Championships (2016/2018), finished in the top ten at Two Oceans on three occasions, with a win in 2019. Mthembu’s vast experience came to the fore in the 2022 Comrades Marathon where he let the Nedbank quintet go and ran his own race, gradually carving up the field in the latter stages of the race to finish in 4th.
His approach to the Comrades Marathon in 2023 is vastly different to that of previous years. Mthembu has for the first time in his running career competed in the Om Die Dam 50km which he won in 2:56:33 and will be foregoing the Two Oceans Marathon (15 April), giving his body more time to recover for The Ultimate Human Race. With his vast experience and pedigree and intimate knowledge of the race, Bongmusa Mthembu will be a factor come race day.
Nkosikhona Mhlakwana (Hollywood Athletics Club) – 6th, 2022
He is still considered as the ‘New Kid on the Block’, but there is a racing acumen within the mind of Nkosikhona Mhlakwana that speaks to a very experienced ultramarathoner. Debuting at the 2019 Comrades Marathon with an 11th place finish, Mhlakwana succumbed to cramps lying in 9th place with the finish line literally in sight metres away. So bad were the cramps that he had to hold on the side barriers before making his way to the finish. In the process he was passed by two other athletes. Since then though he is a different athlete.
Wins in the 2021 Ultra Trail Drakensberg 62km and Mangosuthu Buthelezi 52km coupled with an 11th at Runified 50km and 16th in the Ultra Trail Cape Town 100km, showed he had developed immensely. But it was his 2022 Two Oceans Marathon second place finish, where he went toe to toe with Ethiopia’s Edndale Belachew and only having to give way to the latter’s faster leg speed on the grass at the finish area at UCT, that Mhlakwana announced his pedigree as an ultramarathoner to be reckoned with. Mhlakwana finished 6th in the 2022 Comrades Marathon. He has chosen to make the 2023 Two Oceans Marathon a big focus and with the 8 weeks recovery available between the two races, Mhlakwana will be looking for a top ten position in 2023.