Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola has won the men’s Olympic marathon as Kenyan distance running legend Eliud Kipchoge struggled with a hip problem to finish well behind as he chased an unprecedented third straight men’s marathon gold.
Tola, who won last year’s New York marathon, battled fellow runners and a grueling course with some 1,430 feet of climbing and descent that tested the world’s best. He wasn’t initially selected for Ethiopia’s stacked marathon squad, but was called up a few weeks ago after an injury to one of his teammates. It was a stunning run, taking the Olympic marathon record in a time of 2:06:26 — an incredible feat given this was one of the most challenging courses in Olympic history.
On a warm morning in Paris, the leading pack, which included Kipchoge, got off to a very quick start, chewing up the first 10 kilometers in just 31 minutes as the race headed out to Paris’ southwestern suburbs around Versailles. As the race climbed up the first set of hills, Kipchoge started to struggle, clutching his left hip at times as he seemed to struggle with discomfort. He lagged over a minute behind the leading pack at the halfway stage and fell even further behind over the next few kilometers and never came back into contention. He went on to finish second-last out of the finishers in 76th place, eight-and-a-half minutes behind Tola.
Tola pulled away in the final 10 kilometers as the race returned to central Paris, stretching out to a 30-second lead with four kilometers to go. Belgium’s Bashir Abdi and Kenya’s Benson Kipruto closed the gap in the closing stages, but Tola held on to take gold. Americans Conner Mantz and Clayton Young both claimed top 10 finishes.
Widely considered to be the greatest marathoner of all time, Kipchoge, 39, has been a dominant force over the last decade and was chasing an unprecedented third-straight Olympic marathon title. He became a global icon in 2019 when he became the first man to run a sub-two-hour marathon but he has not been his usual untouchable self in the last 18 months after a sixth-placed finish at last year’s Boston Marathon and a 10th-placed finish at the Tokyo Marathon earlier this year.