Olympic men’s marathon champion Kipchoge of Kenya defends his title.
Athletics at the Summer Olympics – Marathon
Having won the last two marathons in a row, Eliud Kipchoge has secured his place in history as only the third man to do so.
An impressive run by Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge in Sapporo, Japan, earned him the gold medal in the men’s Olympic marathon.
The marathon world record holder finished in a time of 2 hours, 8 minutes, and 38 seconds on Sunday.
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This put him 1 minute and 20 seconds ahead of the runner-up, the Netherlands’ Abdi Nageeye, who in turn finished 1 place and 20 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Bashir Abdi.
Kipchoge, at the age of 36, has joined Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964) and East Germany’s Waldemar Cierpinski (1980, 1984) as the only runners to win consecutive gold medals in the Olympic men’s marathon (1976, 1980).
After he won the marathon for a second time, he commented, “I suppose I fulfilled the heritage by doing so.”
That’s the Source of my joy and Motivation for the Future.
After winning silver in the 5,000-meter run in 2008 and bronze in 2004 at the Olympics, Kipchoge now has a total of four medals to his name.
He was grateful that the Olympics could go on despite the ongoing efforts to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.
In light of the current circumstances, your support means the world to me. It was delayed last year, but it finally occurred, he added.
On Sunday, in temperatures hovering about 27 degrees Celsius, 106 runners representing 45 countries and the Olympic Refugee Team started the race from Odori Park in the middle of Sapporo (81 degrees Fahrenheit).
After the 30-kilometer mark, Kipchoge established why he was the race’s most formidable opponent by breaking away from the pack and leading the rest of the field to victory.
From a statistical dead heat five kilometres into the race, he pulled ahead by 27 seconds at the 35-kilometer mark and a full minute and seventeen seconds by the 40-kilometer mark.
His 80-second victory margin was the largest since Frank Shorter’s gold medal performance at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Kipchoge finished the marathon for the second year in a row, and he celebrated by holding up two fingers.
Kipchoge has been hailed as a “hero” by Sebastian Coe, head of the World Athletics Federation.
You need simply consider his emotional pull to understand… He deserves it so much more than anyone else.
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In reality, the Competition was for the Lesser Medals.
With his sights set on silver, Nageeye spent time encouraging his training companion, Abdi, to finish the final portion of the race and get bronze.
He was able to follow me because I waited for him to get close and then I bolted,” Nageeye said. To be able to experience this together is just remarkable. This is totally insane.
As a result of the high humidity and strong winds on Sunday, almost 30 racers did not complete the course.
Uganda’s Olympic gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich and Ethiopia’s London Marathon champion Shura Kitata Tola both dropped out early on.
Not only did the defending world champion, Ethiopia’s Lelisa Desisa, drop out early, but so did the defending Olympic winner, Kenya’s Amos Kipruto.
