Tete Dijana, Gerda Steyn tipped as Comrades Marathon favourites among top contenders

As the Comrades Marathon, the world's oldest, biggest and most famous ultramarathon inches closer to race day on 11 June, we take a look at this year's top contenders.

Entries are sitting at 17 920 runners for the 96th edition of race, which runs from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in 87.701km.

"We look forward to a fantastic running of this year's 48th Down Run," said Comrades Marathon Association (CMA) race director Rowyn James said.

"Runners will be representing their respective provinces in numbers and, as much as this is a truly international race, it is our South African athletes who have made the Comrades Marathon such an epic event. We warmly welcome everyone to KwaZulu-Natal." 

According to provincial entry statistics released by the CMA in the build-up to the race, over 7 000 have entered from Gauteng compared to the over 3 000 from the hosting province, KwaZulu-Natal.

Provincial entries for the Comrades Marathon: 

Gauteng: 7398

KwaZulu-Natal: 3491

Western Cape: 1517

Eastern Cape: 1141

Mpumalanga: 772

Limpopo: 662

Free State: 505

North West: 450

Northern Cape: 154

Prize money for the man and woman who crosses the finish line first at Kingsmead Stadium, which returns as the venue of the finish line after seven years, is R500 000, almost double the amount of R260 000 at last year's race, which was also a Down Run.

Should the winner be a South African and from the Kwa-Zulu Natal province, sums of R200 000 and R60 000 will be added to the winning kitty, respectively.

READ | Comrades Marathon ups prize money stakes big time, winners to get R500 000 from R260 000 

South Africa's Tete Dijana won the men's race in a time of 05:30:38, while Russia's Alexandra Morozova won the women's race, stopping the clock at 6:17:48.

Here's a look at the