Summary
The men's marathon at the 2024 Summer Olympics took place on August 10, 2024, in Paris, France. The race featured the return of all three medalists from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics: two-time gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, silver medalist Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands, and bronze medalist Bashir Abdi of Belgium. Kipchoge, the champion of the past two Olympic marathons, sought to make history with a victory in Paris becoming the first athlete to win three Olympic gold medals in the marathon. [2] 2022 World Championship gold medalist Tamirat Tola, who also took silver back in 2017 and a track 10,000 bronze medal from 2016, came here as the alternate filling the shoes of injured Sisay Lemma. Abdi was also bronze medalist in 2022. 2023 World Champion Victor Kiplangat and silver medalist Maru Teferi are also entered. Yaseen Abdalla represented Qatar, making his marathon debut through a universality place. [3] The marathon world record holder, Kelvin Kiptum, was killed in a car accident in February 2024.
The race commenced at 08:00 Central European Summer Time (UTC+2) under favorable weather conditions. In the initial stages, nearly 43 year old Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od of Mongolia led the pack for the first 5 kilometers, followed by Héctor Garibay taking the front position until the 10-kilometer mark. Around 12 kilometers, Eyob Faniel of Italy made a significant surge, increasing the pace to 3:00 per kilometer, establishing a 23-second lead by the 15-kilometer point. The field was going closer to 3:07. However, the first series of hills had already begun when Faniel had 23 seconds over the field at 15K.
The hilly sections of the course significantly impacted the race dynamics, it broke apart the large pack, the lead "chase group" included Tamirat Tola, Bashir Abdi, Conner Mantz, Alphonce Simbu, Akira Akasaki, Elroy Gelant, Suguru Osako, with Deresa Geleta and Clayton Young hanging on the back. The earlier lead athlete Eyob Faniel began to slow on the inclines, reducing his advantage to 11 seconds by the 20K mark. Seizing the opportunity, Tola and Mantz began to accelerate and close their gap between them and Faniel, and they catching Faniel just over half a kilometer later. The three crossed the half marathon mark in 1:04:51. Geleta was next, 7 seconds back. With the easy downhill section, it took the lead chase group a little over 2K to catch back up to the leaders.
The subsequent downhill segment allowed the chase group to regroup, forming a lead pack of 15 runners by the 25K mark, with Akasaki marginally ahead. Faniel had by then fallen behind the leaders. Approaching the 28K mark, the course's challenging hills resumed. Akasaki maintained his lead initially, but Tola soon overtook him, steadily increasing his advantage. This move caused the lead pack to disintegrate. By the 29K point, Tola held a seven-second lead over Emile Cairess, the nearest pursuer. After a water station near the hill's summit, Tola commenced the descent, reaching the 30-kilometer mark with an 11-second lead over Cairess. Geleta, Abdi, and Akasaki followed.
With the steep descent, the order shifted again. Geleta overtook Cairess, while Akasaki moved ahead of Abdi. Simbu, capitalizing on the descent, surpassed all three. Geleta responded by reclaiming his position ahead of Simbu. By the time they reached the base near the 33-kilometer mark, Tola maintained a 13-second lead. The group behind him consolidated, with Tebello Ramakongoana and Benson Kipruto making significant gains to join the chasers.
With 5K remaining, Geleta, Abdi, and Kipruto formed a distinct chase group, distancing themselves from Akasaki. Tola extended his lead to 27 seconds. Shortly thereafter, Kipruto began to lose contact with the other chasers. In the final kilometer, Abdi reduced the gap to 17 seconds. Tola finished with the time 2:06:26 and narrowly break the Olympic record set by Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. 21 seconds later, Abdi finished for silver 13 seconds ahead of Kipruto. Japan was the first country to get three across the finish line, ahead of Ethiopia and Italy. [4]
