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Dark horse George Kusche overcame a stomach upset to win the 99th Comrades, completing the 85.777km up run from Durban to Pietermaritzburg in a record time of 5hr 16min 06sec. The self-coached data scientist ended 12th in his Comrades debut last year despite vomiting about halfway, but this time the 27-year-old refused to allow his race to be derailed when his stomach revolted at the other end. Kusche, running for Nedbank, took the lead with 10km to go, overtaking the walking Mbuti Mollo of Maxed Elite, the last surviving athlete of the early breakaway runners. Mashau Rasogo had shot off into the early lead, but barely an hour into the epic he pulled up with cramps. Jobo Khatoane of Lesotho and Samuel Moloi of Phantane took turns at the front before Mollo usurped a lead that he held deep into the race, until his legs faltered and he gave up the lead. Pretoria-based Kusche, a former track athlete who studied actuarial science at university in the US, may have looked like he was in pain over the final 10km, but he never lost his form as he held on to smash the 5:24:49 mark set by Leonid Shvetsov in 2008 on a course that was about 800m longer. “That was the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” said Kusche. “I knew I was taking a gamble.”The win and the best time earned Kusche in excess of R2m. He pocketed R925,000 for the win, R242,000 for being the first South African, R605,000 for beating the best time and an additional R550,000 for the fastest average pace per kilometre.Piet Wiersma of the Netherlands, the defending up champion, had to settle for second in 5:19:45 and Mollo, amazingly, held on for third place in 5:21:40.
