Little-known Dutchman shocks Comrades field, almost ruins SA fairytale: 'It's mixed feelings'

Sunday's men's Comrades Marathon belonged to Tete Dijana, who won back-to-back titles and set a new record for the down run. 

That is the headline that people will remember in the years to come, but those who watched this race closely will know how close it was to having a very different ending. 

The potential complication to the South African fairytale story came in the form of 25-year-old Dutchman Piet Wiersma. 

Having been included in Nedbank's Running Club's international contingent for the race, very few South Africans would have heard of Wiersma before Sunday. 

READ | SA's golden day at Comrades 2023: 'I could hear the country screaming my name'

He was a bronze medalist in the 2022 100km World Championships in Berlin, but in the build-up to Comrades 2023, he was not spoken about. 

Yet, when Nedbank team captain Edward Mothibi (3rd) and Dijana were working together to try and secure a South African one-two finish, Wiersma simply wouldn't go away and proved to be a problem. 

"I was chatting to Edward, and he told me that this guy [Wiersma] was very strong," said Dijana after the race. 

"We had to make a plan for him."

That plan saw Dijana make the move to get ahead, leaving Mothiba behind. 

Still, Wiersma wouldn't back down, and by the end of the race, he had seemingly more left in the tank as he hunted down Dijana to finish an agonising 2.23 seconds short of the champion. 

"It's mixed feelings right now," Wiersma said after the race, visibly emotional at the thought of what might have been.

"If I'm honest, I mostly feel a bit disappointed. It could have been more, maybe if I started speeding up a bit sooner. But, at the same time, Tete was very strong physically and mentally so he also could have seen me coming and sped up.

"We