Paris 2024 Olympics: Kipchoge runs his ‘worst marathon’ and drops out; Tamirat Tola wins gold

The Ethiopian Tamirat Tola won the marathon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games this Saturday, in a race in which the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge He was soon left behind, with no chance of winning a third consecutive gold, and ended up giving up.

Tola, who will turn 33 on Sunday, won the atypical Parisian track in a time of 2 hours 6 minutes 26 seconds, setting a new Olympic record.

Belgian Bashir Abdi finished 21 seconds behind, taking silver, and the bronze went to Kenyan Benson Kipruto, who crossed the finish line 34 seconds behind. But the symbolic image of the race was seeing Kipchoge in great trouble and even walking. He soon fell behind and retired after the 30th kilometre.

By then, he was already eight minutes and 30 seconds behind the leaders of the race. Cheered on by spectators along the way, the iconic Kenyan marathoner gave away his race number, his shoes and his socks before boarding a vehicle to collect athletes, an AFP journalist noted.

No third gold in a row

Kipchoge, former world record holder (2h01:09 in 2022), dreamed of becoming the first marathon runner to win three Olympic gold medals, thus surpassing the East German runner Waldemar Cierpinski (Olympic champion in Montreal-1976 and Moscow-1980) and the Ethiopian Abebe Bikila (Rome-1960 and Tokyo-1964), but at no point was he close to achieving the feat.

“Today was a tough day. It’s like boxing, you can train for five months for a fight and you get knocked out in two seconds. But life goes on,” said Kipchoge, who admitted that it had been his “worst marathon.”

Tola was the hero of the sunny morning in Paris. He quickly found himself at the head of the pack and proved to be in good shape in this marathon, which featured an atypical course with 436 metres of positive gradient.

The sequence of climbs and descents in Paris, including Versailles, ended up taking its toll on the runners, most of whom are used to marathons on flatter terrain.

Tamirat Tola’s victory also comes as she joined the Ethiopian team for this marathon at the last minute, replacing the initially planned Sisay Lemma, who withdrew. This is not the first Olympic medal for Tola, who won bronze in the 10,000 metres at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

He was the world champion in Eugene in 2022 and runner-up in the marathon at the World Championships in London in 2017. “Thank you, Paris!” he said after crossing the finish line. “I feel happy, I was world champion in 2022 and now I am an Olympic champion. It’s the most beautiful day of my life, this was my goal,” he celebrated.

This year, Tola had dropped out of the London marathon in April and had not finished the 2023 Budapest World Marathon either, a year in which he was able to get his revenge by winning the New York Marathon a few months later. He has a record of 2 hours 3 minutes 39 seconds, which he set in Rotterdam in 2021.

Fourth Ethiopian crowned

With his victory on Saturday on the Esplanade des Invalides, he becomes the fourth Ethiopian to win the Olympic marathon in the men’s category after the pioneer Abebe Bikila with his successes in 1960 and 1964, Mamo Wolde (1968) and Gezahegne Abera (2000). Another legend who was taking part in the race, the also Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, was soon left behind and finished 39th with a time of 2h12:24, almost six minutes behind his compatriot.

“It’s great that Ethiopia won the race. Tola is very strong, I’m happy for him. People were talking about me and Kipchoge, but today was the day of the younger generation. These youngsters are stronger than us,” admitted Bekele. The Spanish representatives were unable to make it into the ‘Top 30’ and the first of those classified was Ibrahim Chakir, thirty-fourth (2h11:44). The first among the Latin Americans was the Chilean Carlos Díaz (53rd, 2h14:25).

AFP

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