Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola storms to men’s Olympic marathon gold as Eliud Kipchoge drops out

PARIS – Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola won gold in the men’s marathon at the Paris Games on Aug 10 while Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who had been bidding for an unprecedented third consecutive Olympic crown, failed to finish.

Belgium’s Bashir Abdi took silver, improving on his bronze from Tokyo, and Kenya’s Benson Kipruto claimed bronze.

Tola built a strong lead early on and crossed the finish line in 2hr 6min 26sec, an Olympic record that is especially impressive given the course was the toughest of any Olympics or championship, according to World Athletics.

“My intention was just to keep up with the people who were going out and then after some point I decided to try to push on my own,” Tola said.

“But I was afraid and I was having difficulties when I was climbing the uphill. I felt confident after the 41st kilometre, only one more to go. Until then, I was looking back and I was not sure.”

Emerging from a pack of front runners from the first steep ascent of an exceptionally hilly course, the former cross-country specialist seemed only to strengthen on the second hill as others faded behind him.

Tola had an 18-second lead by the 35km mark, which he extended as the Eiffel Tower came into sight and crowds lining the streets roared him on.

The 32-year-old’s victory, a first by an Ethiopian in the event in 24 years, was all the more sweet given he was not initially in the team, having been called up after Sisay Lemma withdrew due to a hamstring injury.

Tola won the 2023 New York marathon in a course record.

“(Sisay) told me, ‘It’s better for me to drop out and you have to go and compete, because you can do better than me with the condition I am in now’,” Tola said. “This victory also belongs to him, he gave me the opportunity. I would like to thank him.”

He crossed the finish line cheered on by Haile Gebrselassie, Ethiopia’s double Olympic 10,000m champion, whom he has cited as one of his inspirations to become a marathon runner.

Abdi and Kipruto were jostling with Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta for the next two steps on the podium but Geleta faded in the last two kilometres.

“The course was very tough today so I tried not to lose a lot of energy, I tried to run as smart as possible so I’m very happy with this result,” Abdi said. “It was really tough, the weather was hot and there were a lot of ups and downs.”

Abdi, 35, who began his career competing in the 5,000m and 10,000m, finished in 2:06:47 with 33-year-old Kipruto posting a time of 2:07:00.

Kipruto had posted the fastest time in the world in 2024, having won the Tokyo Marathon in March in a personal best of 2:02:16.

He dedicated his bronze medal to Kelvin Kiptum, who

died in a car crash in February

at the age of 24, having broken the marathon world record in Chicago in 2023.

Kipchoge, widely considered the greatest marathon runner of all time, failed to bag a third consecutive gold,

defeated by the first ascent of the course

that took athletes out to Versailles.

He had been among the front runners but that hill broke up the leading pack and proved too much for the 39-year-old, who was participating in his fifth Olympics.

In typical sanguine fashion, Kipchoge downplayed the setback – the first time he has not finished a race – and did not give any hints as to his widely expected retirement from the sport.

“Today is a tough day in my office. As always, you can’t predict what will happen,” he said with a smile, adding that he felt supported by the crowd even after slowing to a walk in what he described as his worst ever race.

“I walked for two kilometres and I had more than 300 people on my side walking together,” he said.

Passing runners, too, were encouraging him to keep pushing on, he said. “I could feel the love and the respect, actually.”

After stopping, Kipchoge took off his running shoes and gave them to a fan before climbing into an official vehicle.

Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, who has the fifth-fastest marathon time ever, finished 39th.

“It was tough, you know, to challenge those guys,” the 42-year-old said.

Britain’s Emile Cairess finished an impressive fourth in 2:07:29.

Starting at the City Hall, the 42km course took athletes along the banks of the Seine and past monuments like the Louvre and Opera Garnier, then ploughing westwards towards the Palace of Versailles which they reached at 25km before turning back towards the city.

The runners – 71 finishers in total, after ten dropped out – finished in front of the Invalides monument where Napoleon’s tomb lies.

The Paris course was designed to commemorate a protest during the French Revolution in which thousands of women marched on Versailles to demand bread from the king.

Later, Janja Garnbret took another big step to cementing her status as the world’s greatest sport climber by battling her way to a back-to-back Olympic title with a victory in the boulder and lead event.

Already a legend in her field, her win gave Slovenia its second gold medal in Paris, and the 25-year-old a place in history as the first Olympic champion in the boulder and lead event. American Brooke Raboutou took the silver and Austria’s Jessica Pilz the bronze.

On the water, New Zealand kayaker Lisa Carrington completed her clean sweep of gold medals in her events, keeping her cool to win the women’s kayak single 500m race and join the likes of Usain Bolt as a winner of eight career golds.

The 35-year-old Kiwi had to bring all her paddling experience to bear en route to her third victory in Paris after winning both the four and the double golds earlier last week.

Hungary’s Tamara Csipes took the silver and Denmark’s Emma Jorgensen picked up the bronze.

Josef Dostal of the Cech Republic roared to victory in the men’s 1,000m kayak single, ahead of Hungarian pair of Adam Varga and Balint Kopasz, who took silver and bronze respectively.

Meanwhile, France beat the world No. 1 ranked side Poland 3-0 to win the men’s volleyball gold, retaining their title from the Tokyo Games but this time on home soil.

France are only the third country to win back-to-back golds in men’s volleyball, after the former Soviet Union and the United States. The US had beaten world champions Italy in straight sets on Aug 9 to take the bronze medal.

Also on Aug 9, top-seeded Brazilian pair Ana Patricia Silva and Eduarda Santos won gold in the women’s beach volleyball, finally nailing down victory after three tense sets.

The duo beat seventh-ranked Canadians Melissa Humana-Paredes and Brandie Wilkerson 26-24, 12-21, 15-10 in a bad-tempered final. REUTERS, AFP