Gerda Steyn's total earnings from winning the 2025 Comrades Marathon

While the winner’s cheque of R874,000 would have seemed like a great payday for women’s Comrades Marathon champion Gerda Steyn on Sunday, it turns out the Smiling Assassin earned almost double that in total.

In addition to her first-place prize of R874,000, Steyn earned R550,000 for the best average pace in the women’s race, R220,000 as the first SA athlete home, and a handy R50,000 for reaching the Cell C Hot Spot first in the latter stages of the run.

If you add all that up, it totals a whopping R1 644,000.

Most people would quip ‘not bad for a day’s work’, when in actual fact the performances of Steyn have been built through years of dedication and hard work in training to reach this point.

Key 2025 Comrades Marathon Statistics and Highlights

Payouts aside, here are some of the key stats from the race this year.

One of the biggest changes this year was the new two-group start. This first group of the fastest qualifying runners in the field, with the elites at the front, will go off first. This first group will have around 12,500 runners taking off at the gun.

Each group was further divided into batches, with around 1,500 runners in each batch.

The second main group featured around 10,000 athletes.

As for the food and drinks available at refreshment stations throughout the route, here are the key numbers.

Hydration Supplies

• Thirsti Water Sachets: 2.2 million

• Thirsti Sports Drink Sachets: 600,000

• Coca-Cola: 30,350 litres

• Fanta / Crème Soda: 10,650 litres

• Coca-Cola Paper Cups (175ml): 450,000

• Asemzansi Amahewu: 45,000 servings

• Bavaria 0.0% Beer (150ml cans): 22,000

Food & Energy Provisions

• Cooked Baby Potatoes: 2 tons

• Bananas: 600 boxes

• Oranges: 4.5 tons

• Energy Biscuits: 500 kg

• Salticrax (Crackers): 500 kg

@Michael_Sherman

IOL Sport