Ethiopian Tamirat Tola won the Olympic marathon and set a record

Ethiopian Tamirat Tola was crowned champion in the marathon at the Paris Games, This Saturday, in a race in which Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge was soon left behind, with no chance of winning a third consecutive gold, and ended up abandoning.

Tola, who will turn 33 on Sunday, won on the atypical Parisian track with a time of 2 hours, 6 minutes and 26 seconds, setting a new Olympic record. Belgium’s 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 test was to see Kipchoge with many problems and even walkingHe soon fell behind and dropped out after kilometer 30.

At that time, I was already 8 minutes and 30 seconds late. The iconic Kenyan marathoner, cheered on by spectators along the way, gave away his 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), I dreamed of being the first marathon runner to win three Olympic gold medals, to surpass 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 time was he close to achieving the feat.

Tola was the hero of the sunny morning in ParisHe soon found himself at the head of the pack and proved to have good legs in this marathon, which had an atypical route, with 436 metres of positive gradient.

The chain of ups and downs in Paris, with a stop at Versailles, It ended up taking its toll on the runnersmost of whom are accustomed to marathons on flatter terrain.

Tamirat Tola’s victory also occurs with the circumstance that joined the Ethiopian team for this marathon at the last minute, as a replacement for the initially planned Sisay Lemma, who had to be sidelined.

This is not the first Olympic medal for Tola, who won bronze in the 10,000 metres at the Rio de Janeiro Games in 2016. In the marathon, he was champion at the Eugene World Championships in 2022 and runner-up at the London World Championships 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 Olympic champion. It is 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 he had not finished the race in the Budapest World Marathon in 2023, 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 and 39 hundredths, which he set in Rotterdam in 2021.

– Fourth Ethiopian crowned –

With his victory this Saturday on the Esplanade des Invalides becomes the fourth Ethiopian to be an Olympic marathon champion 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 took part in the race, also Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele was soon delayed and finished 39th with a time of 2h12:24, almost six minutes behind his compatriot.

Spanish representatives were unable to make it into the ‘Top 30’ and the first of the classified was Ibrahim Chakir, fourteenth (2h11:44).

The first among Latin Americans was eChilean Carlos Díaz (53rd, 2h14:25).