His name was mentioned as one of the favourites to win a gold medal (top 10) in this year’s Comrades marathon and there were even a few experts who speculated about him as a possible champion, but Pretoria’s newest Comrades marathon champion still made history in several ways with his remarkable victory in Pietermaritzburg on Sunday.

The 27-year-old Kusche, who participated in the colours of the Nedbank Athletics Club, not only took on several experienced opponents in his second ever Comrades marathon and his first “up” run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, but he also shattered the record for this route.

Yes, the route was about 800 meters shorter this year, but Kusche’s average pace over the full 85.77km puts his performance into perspective and suggests that he would have broken the record on the old route in any case.

His new record of 05:15,56 (5 hours, 15 minutes and 56 seconds) is almost nine minutes faster than the Russian, Leonid Shvetsov’s, previous record of 5:24,49, which was set in 2008. Kusche achieved this feat by maintaining an average pace of 3m 41s per kilometre, which is faster than the previous best ever recorded over this route.

Although Kusche finished 12th last year in the “down” race, which was his first Comrades, he was named the fastest newcomer.

This new Comrades champion’s story of transformation into a world-class marathon athlete since his days as one of the country’s most promising track athletes, is remarkable.

Kusche grew up in Malalane, a small town next to the Kruger National Park in the Lowveld. After his primary school career at Laerskool Malalane, he came to Pretoria to complete his high school career at the Afrikaanse Hoër Seunskool (Affies).

It was here at Affies that he really started to make a name for himself as a track and field athlete. In his matric year in 2016, this promising boy was already being talked about as a possible Olympic athlete of the future. He recorded brilliant times in the middle and long distances (1500m and 3000m) on the athletics track.

As a first-year student at the University of Pretoria in 2017, he was crowned double champion at the South African Junior Athletics Championships that year when he won both the 800m and the 1500m races.

– Kusche’s remarkable victory also brought his former school’s name back into the annals of Comrades history after 65 years. His namesake, George Claassen, who matriculated at Affies in 1933, won the Comrades marathon in 1961. The late Claassen is the father of the famous Springbok captain, Wynand Claassen.

– George Kusche is also the first Afrikaans-speaking South African in 29 years to win this world-famous ultra marathon since Charl Mattheus won the “down” race from Pietermaritzburg to Durban in 1997 in a time of 5:28:37.

– Apart from Kusche’s victory in the men’s division, there was also a strong connection with Pretoria among the women.

Road racing superstar and former Pretoria resident Gerda Steyn, now based in Dubai, has claimed her fifth Comrades Marathon title. It was her fourth consecutive victory, after winning her first title in 2021, but not competing in 2022.

Steyn improved her own record in the “up run” with her winning time of 05:44.53.

The well-known champion road athlete and Olympian from Pretoria, Irvette van Zyl, finished third in the women’s division of the Comrades on Sunday.

This was Van Zyl’s second Comrades and first “up” run, having finished fourth in the “down” run from Pietermaritzburg to Durban last year.

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