Dijana prepares for a hat-trick at the Comrades Marathon

THE smile that Tete Dijana wore during the Comrades Marathon’s elite athletes’ pre-race media conference on Thursday told the story of a champion at ease with the ghosts from his past.

- MATSHELANE MAMABOLO

Not that they have been exorcised, rather the two-time champion has come to terms with them and is not going to let them hamstring him from completing a hat-trick of Down Run victories.

The Nedbank Running Club athlete who registered back-to-back victories in 2022 and 2023 has made a remarkable turnaround in the past fortnight to arrive in KwaZulu-Natal his confident and poster-boy self with a special haircut for the race as usual.

He looked anything but two weeks ago out in the quaint tourist town of Dullstroom in Mpumalanga, where he cut a forlorn figure despite being in the company of his training mates.

Then, Dijana was edgy, proper unkempt with a growing beard that got him looking much older. He clearly was still suffering from the mental effects of what transpired at last year’s race.

Expected to complete a hat-trick of victories, Dijana bombed out to finish 14th after suffering dizzy spells and cramping so bad he fell and struggled to walk late in the race.

It was one of the saddest sights of the race as his legs wobbled under him, the lad from Mafikeng resembling a newly-born calf striving to find its footing.

“Bra Matshelane, I cannot tell you what happened. But it had something to do with nutrition because I started to feel dizzy from 30 kays (kilometers). I even took off the (sun) glasses feeling like they were dim too much.

"I felt myself losing energy but I pushed and pushed but the bunch was gone and I cramped and fell twice,” he recalled the events of last year which left most Comrades lovers heartbroken as the darling of South Africa failed and his Dutch adversary Piet Wiersma sauntered to victory.