Just two weeks ago, Tamirat Tola I didn’t know I was going to run the marathon. Paris 2024 Olympic GamesThe Ethiopian came in at the last minute as a replacement for his teammate. Weak Copperand ended up winning the gold medal with an Olympic record on the extremely tough circuit in the French capital.
Tola won with a time of 2h06.26, reducing the Olympic record held by the Kenyan by six seconds. Samuel Wanjiru set in Beijing 2008. Silver went to the Belgian Bashir Abdiwho moved up a step from the bronze medal in Tokyo 2020; and the bronze, for Benson Kipruto.
The Ethiopian made the first move just before the half marathon, putting an end to the Italian’s solo adventure. Eyob Faniel with an increase in pace that began to select the leading group.
Also claiming significant victims: Eliud Kipchogewho was seen ahead in the first kilometers, had been making gestures of pain in his left hip for some time, and after this increase in pain he began to fall behind.
The two-time Olympic champion would abandon shortly after passing the 30-kilometre mark, after overcoming the most demanding section of the entire route, a very long wall that Tamirat Tola took advantage of to make the decisive attack.
At around kilometer 28.5, the Olympic marathoners encountered a huge hill with a gradient of more than 10% that forced them to change to a much shorter pace and with their bodies leaning forward.
And Tola only made the worst of the punishment with an attack, he put the leading group in single file, and turned the cards on their heads: only nine athletes kept up with the pace.
A group that gradually lost members as Tola opened up a gap. There would be five, then four, then three, fighting for the two medals left by the Ethiopian, who was going for the Olympic record.
Tola, Olympic bronze medallist in the 10,000m in Tokyo 2020, world marathon champion in Eugene 2022 and runner-up in London 2017, and winner of the New York Marathon in 2023, was proclaimed champion of the 2024 Paris marathon two weeks after learning that he was going to run it.
After Deresa Geleta’s collapse, silver went to Belgian Bashir Abdi and bronze to Kenyan Benson Kipruto.
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