The men's 800 metres at the 2004 Summer Olympics as part of the athletics program was held at the Athens Olympic Stadium from August 25 to 28. Seventy-two athletes from 58 nations competed. The event was won by Yuriy Borzakovskiy of Russia, the first medal for the nation in the event. Wilson Kipketer of Denmark became the 10th man to win a second medal in the 800 metres.
Renato Canova is an Italian athletics coach.
Moses Cheruiyot Mosop is a Kenyan middle and long distance athlete. He competed for Kenya at the 2004 Olympic Games and went on to take 10,000 metres bronze at the 2005 World Championships in Athletics. He has also been successful in cross country running, having won the silver at the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships as well as team gold with Kenya in 2007 and 2009.
Eliud Kipchoge is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly specialised at the 5000 metre distance. Widely regarded as the greatest marathon runner and one of the greatest sportsmen in history, he is the 2016 and 2020 Olympic marathon champion, holds the world record in the marathon with a time of 2:01:09 set at the 2022 Berlin Marathon, and owns four out of the five fastest marathon times in history.
Abel Kirui is a long-distance runner from Kenya who competes in marathons. He had back-to-back wins in the World Championships Marathon in 2009 and 2011. He won in 2009 with a time of 2:06:54, then defended his title with a winning margin of two minutes and 28 seconds – the largest ever margin at the World Championship event. He won a silver medal in the 2012 Olympic marathon.
The 2010 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships was held in Nanning, China on 16 October 2010. The competition took place on the city streets, beginning and ending at Wuxiang Square, with a total prize purse of US$245,000 at stake.
Geoffrey Kiprono Mutai is a Kenyan long distance runner who specialises in road running competitions. On 18 April 2011 at the Boston Marathon, Mutai ran the fastest marathon ever at the time in a time of 2 hours 3 minutes 2 seconds, though the time was not recognised by the International Association of Athletics Federations as a world record since the Boston course does not meet the criteria to be eligible for the mark.
Feyisa Lilesa is an Oromo long-distance runner from Ethiopia. He became the youngest man to run under 2:06 when he ran 2:05:23 in the men's marathon at the 2010 Rotterdam Marathon. He set his personal best of 2:04:52 in the marathon when he came in second place at the 2012 Chicago Marathon.
Peter Cheruiyot Kirui is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who competes over 10,000 metres on the track and in road running competitions. He was the 2011 Kenyan champion over 10,000 m and came sixth at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. He has acted as a pacemaker for major marathons and has a marathon best of 2:06:31 hours. His best for the half marathon is 59:22 minutes.
The men's marathon at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium and Moscow streets on 17 August.
The women's marathon at the 2013 World Championships in Athletics was held at the Luzhniki Stadium and Moscow streets on 10 August.
The men's 10,000 metres event at the 2016 Summer Olympics took place on 13 August at the Olympic Stadium. In a tactical yet comparatively quick race, Great Britain's Mo Farah defended his Olympic title in 27:05.17 minutes, becoming the sixth man to win the Olympic 10,000 metres title twice. Reaching their first Olympic podium, Kenya's Paul Tanui was the silver medallist and Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia took the bronze.
The men's marathon at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro took place on the Sambódromo on 21 August, the final day of the Games. One hundred fifty-five athletes from 79 nations competed. The event was won by Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, the nation's second victory in the event in three Games. Feyisa Lilesa of Ethiopia took silver, while Galen Rupp of the United States took bronze. The defending champion going into the marathon was Ugandan Stephen Kiprotich.
Tamirat Tola Abera is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who competes in cross country running and road running. He was a team medallist for Ethiopia at the 2015 IAAF World Cross Country Championships and 2016 IAAF World Half Marathon Championships, having had top six finishes.
Callum Hawkins is a British distance runner, who competed in the marathon at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is the Scottish record holder in the marathon and the British all-time number three at that distance behind Mo Farah and Steve Jones. Hawkins is also the all-time Great Britain number two in the half marathon. He is the Great Scottish Run course record holder and was the first British man to win that event in 23 years.
The 2017 Chicago Marathon was the 40th annual edition of the Chicago Marathon held in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and was held on October 8. The race had 44,508 finishers, and the number of spectators was estimated at over 1.5 million.
Joyciline Jepkosgei is a Kenyan female long-distance runner who competes over distances from 10,000 metres to the marathon. She is the former half marathon world record holder in contests with mixed-gender fields with her personal best of 64:51 minutes, and additionally the former world record holder in the 10 km with 29:43 minutes. She was a bronze medallist over 10,000 m at the African Championships in Athletics in 2016. Jepkosgei ran a pending world record for the half marathon of 1:04:52 at the Sportisimo Prague Half Marathon in April 2017, becoming the first woman ever to break 65 minutes. She also unofficially broke the IAAF-ratified records for 10 km, 15 km and 20 km along the way, breaking a total of four world records in a single event. She also became the first Kenyan ever to break six world records in six months.
Geoffrey Kipkorir Kirui is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in cross country running competitions, track and road races up to the marathon.
The men's marathon event at the 2020 Summer Olympics started at 07:00 on 8 August 2021 in Sapporo, Japan. 106 athletes from 46 nations competed. The previous Olympic champion, Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, successfully defended his title, with Dutch and Belgian athletes Abdi Nageeye and Bashir Abdi gaining silver and bronze, respectively. Kipchoge was the third man to repeat as Olympic marathon champion, after Abebe Bikila and Waldemar Cierpinski. The Netherlands and Belgium earned their first men's marathon medals since 1980 and 1976, respectively.
The men's marathon was one of the road events at the 2019 World Athletics Championships in Doha, Qatar. Due to the heat in Doha, the race was scheduled to begin at 23:59 on 5 October 2019. Even with the unusual timing, high temperatures were expected to provide difficult conditions for running, but in the end temperatures dropped to around 29 °C (84 °F) and 50% humidity. The race was won by Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia in 2 h 10 min 40 s, followed four seconds behind by his compatriot Mosinet Geremew. Amos Kipruto of Kenya was third in 2:10:51.
