At the Olympic men’s marathon, Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia took charge through the hills of the extraordinarily difficult course and emerged with a convincing win. Tola broke the tape in 2:06:26, breaking the previous Olympic record by 6 seconds.
Behind him, three men—Bashir Abdi of Belgium, Benson Kipruto of Kenya, and Deresa Geleta of Ethiopia—battled for the two remaining medals.
Abdi was second in 2:06:47, and Kipruto was third in 2:07:00.
In the race’s early kilometres, Eyob Faniel of Italy opened up a 23-second gap on the pack just after 10K, but the chasers included some big names, most notably Tola, winner of the 2022 World Championships marathon who has a personal best of 2:03.39, and 2:02 marathoner Kipruto of Kenya, winner of three major marathons including Boston in 2021. By the time the climbing started at 15 kilometers, they had closed the gap.
Tola led the pack through halfway in 1:04:51.
But the hills exacted their toll—both up and down. By the time the course flattened out around 32 kilometres, Tola had a clear lead. Although he made it look easy—he split just over 14 minutes for the 5K section of the course that included the steep downhill, Tola said he was not confident.
“I had difficulties on the hilly section, so I was afraid at that point,” he said. “I only felt confident after the 41st kilometre. Until then I kept looking back and wasn’t sure.”
Abdi, the silver medalist, said the course was the hardest he had ever run.
“I actually thought the upper hills will be the most challenging, but going down was the most difficult one for myself,” he said. “You don’t have control of your body. I was really afraid to crash there.”
Two-time Olympic Marathon gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya and Ethiopian great Kenenisa Bekele were never factors in the race. Kipchoge dropped out after 30 kilometres, Bekele was 39th in 2:12:24, and he said he had pain in one of his hamstrings.
According to media reports, Tola was added to the Ethiopian team late—on July 26—after Sisay Lemma withdrew due to injury.
“Sisay told me that it was better for him to drop out and for me to compete,” Tola said after the race. “He said, ‘You can do better than me in my condition. It is thanks to him, this victory also belongs to him for giving me this opportunity.”
From: Runner’s World US
