Athletics at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

The Men's marathon at the 2004 Summer Olympics took place on August 29 in the streets of Athens, Greece where one hundred and one athletes from 59 nations competed.[1] The event was won by Stefano Baldini of Italy, the nation's first victory in the event since 1988 and second overall. The United States reached the podium in the event for the first time since 1976 with Meb Keflezighi's silver. Vanderlei de Lima took bronze, Brazil's first-ever medal in the men's marathon.

Men's marathon
at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Panathenaic Stadium (2014)
VenueMarathon to Athens, Greece
Date29 August
Competitors101 from 59 nations
Winning time2:10:55
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Stefano Baldini
 Italy
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Meb Keflezighi
 United States
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Vanderlei de Lima
 Brazil
← 2000
2008 →
Official Highlights
Official Video

As with the previous Games, the marathon also marked the end of the 2004 Summer Olympics and the medal ceremony took place during the closing ceremony at the Olympic Stadium.

The event was mired in controversy after the organisers rejected an appeal for Vanderlei de Lima to be awarded gold. He was leading the race when he was tackled by a spectator, relegating him to third.

Summary

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The 42-km (26-mile) journey began in the actual town of Marathon. The top contenders all found themselves in a large leading group that held a modest pace through the half marathon. A few tried to surge ahead but the most successful was Vanderlei De Lima's attack at 20k. Past 25k, Stefano Baldini raised the tempo taking seven others with him. Finally, the chase group had been whittled down to three: Stefano Baldini, Paul Tergat, and Mebrahtom Keflezighi. After 35k was passed, Tergat (the world record holder) cracked, leaving two runners to chase behind. Baldini then closed the gap to De Lima after the latter was attacked by a spectator while dropping Keflezighi. Baldini moved into the lead and took it home for the gold medal in 2:10:55.[2] Keflezighi caught the fading De Lima as well to take the silver in 2:11:29. Finishing at 2:12:11, De Lima was able to hold off Jon Brown, beating him by 15 seconds for the bronze.[3]

Incident

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Vanderlei de Lima (left) and Neil Horan

The event was marked by an incident in which Neil Horan, an Irish priest, grappled Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil while de Lima was leading the event with around 7 kilometers remaining and dragged him to the crowd. Greek spectator Polyvios Kossivas helped de Lima free from Horan's grasp and back into his running. De Lima lost about 10 seconds of time because of the interruption, and finished third in the event with a time of 2:12:11, winning the bronze medal. De Lima received the rarely awarded Pierre de Coubertin medal for sportsmanship in addition to his bronze.

Despite the fact that the incident had seriously hindered his chances of winning the gold or silver medal, he did not complain and graciously acknowledged the crowd's cheers in the home straight. The protester had a sign on his back that read "The Grand Prix Priest. Israel Fulfilment of Prophecy Says The Bible. The Second Coming is Near."[4]

The phrase "Grand Prix Priest" refers to Horan's previous protest, in which he ran onto the track at the Silverstone Circuit during the 2003 British Grand Prix, intentionally running directly into the path of oncoming cars.

Background

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This was the 25th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning runners from the 2000 marathon included silver medalist Erick Wainaina of Kenya and fourth-place finisher Jon Brown of Great Britain. The reigning world champion was Jaouad Gharib of Morocco. There was "no definite favorite" in the field.[1]

Belarus, the Czech Republic, and Saint Lucia each made their first appearance in Olympic men's marathons; East Timor made its first formal appearance, though it had had one Independent Olympic Athlete from East Timor in 2000. The United States made its 24th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

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The qualification period for athletics was 1 January 2003 to 9 August 2004. For the men's marathon, each National Olympic Committee was permitted to enter up to three athletes that had run the race in 2:15:00 or faster during the qualification period. The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress. If an NOC had no athletes that qualified under that standard, one athlete that had run the race in 2:18:00 or faster could be entered.

Competition format and course

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As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards was run over a point-to-point route through the streets of Athens.[1] These streets were recently painted for the event, which provided an excellent road surface for the athletes. Drawing upon the ancient origins of the race, the marathon began in Marathon, Greece, and eventually ended at Panathinaiko Stadium, the venue previously used for the 1896 Athens Olympics.[5]

Records

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Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record   Paul Tergat (KEN) 2:04:55 Berlin, Germany 28 September 2003
Olympic record   Carlos Lopes (POR) 2:09:21 Los Angeles, United States 12 August 1984

No new records were set during the competition.

Schedule

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The day was "the hottest day ever for an Olympic marathon", just above 30 °C (86 °F).[1]

All times are Greece Standard Time (UTC+2)

Date Time Round
Sunday, 29 August 2004 18:00 Final

Results

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Eighty-one runners finished; 20 did not.[6]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
  Stefano Baldini   Italy 2:10:55
  Meb Keflezighi   United States 2:11:29 SB
  Vanderlei de Lima   Brazil 2:12:11
4 Jon Brown   Great Britain 2:12:26 SB
5 Shigeru Aburaya   Japan 2:13:11
6 Toshinari Suwa   Japan 2:13:24
7 Erick Wainaina   Kenya 2:13:30
8 Alberto Chaíça   Portugal 2:14:17
9 Alberico di Cecco   Italy 2:14:34
10 Paul Tergat   Kenya 2:14:45
11 Jaouad Gharib   Morocco 2:15:12
12 Alan Culpepper   United States 2:15:26
13 Leonid Shvetsov   Russia 2:15:28
14 Lee Bong-ju   South Korea 2:15:33
15 Ambesse Tolosa   Ethiopia 2:15:39
16 Gert Thys   South Africa 2:16:08
17 Ji Young-joon   South Korea 2:16:14
18 Antoni Peña   Spain 2:16:38
19 Grigoriy Andreyev   Russia 2:16:55
20 Haile Satayin   Israel 2:17:25
21 Jonathan Wyatt   New Zealand 2:17:45
22 Janne Holmen   Finland 2:17:50
23 Dan Robinson   Great Britain 2:17:53
24 Nikolaos Polias   Greece 2:17:56
25 Ndabili Bashingili   Botswana 2:18:09
26 Pavel Loskutov   Estonia 2:18:09
27 José Rios   Spain 2:18:40
28 Lee Troop   Australia 2:18:46
29 Michael Buchleitner   Austria 2:19:19
30 Anuradha Cooray   Sri Lanka 2:19:24
31 Li Zhuhong   China 2:19:26
32 Joachim Nshimirimana   Burundi 2:19:31
33 Dale Warrender   New Zealand 2:19:42
34 Waldemar Glinka   Poland 2:19:43
35 Jong Myong-chol   North Korea 2:19:47
36 El-Hassan Lahssini   France 2:19:50
37 Michał Bartoszak   Poland 2:20:20
38 Ahmed Jumaa Jaber   Qatar 2:20:27
39 Ali Mabrouk El Zaidi   Libya 2:20:31
40 Samson Ramadhani   Tanzania 2:20:38
41 Lee Myong-seung   South Korea 2:21:01
42 Tomoaki Kunichika   Japan 2:21:13
43 José Alirio Carrasco   Colombia 2:21:14
44 Ernest Ndjissipou   Central African Republic 2:21:23
45 Nicholas Harrison   Australia 2:21:42
46 Tereje Wodajo   Ethiopia 2:21:53
47 Aguelmis Rojas   Cuba 2:21:59
48 Abel Chimukoko   Zimbabwe 2:22:09
49 Saïd Belhout   Algeria 2:22:32
50 Matthew O'Dowd   Great Britain 2:22:37
51 Juan Carlos Cardona   Colombia 2:22:49
52 Daniele Caimmi   Italy 2:23:07
53 João N'Tyamba   Angola 2:23:26
54 Roman Kejžar   Slovenia 2:23:34
55 Procopio Franco   Mexico 2:23:34
56 Wu Wen-chien   Chinese Taipei 2:23:54
57 Antoni Bernado   Andorra 2:23:55
58 Julio Rey   Spain 2:24:54
59 Asaf Bimro   Israel 2:25:20
60 Sisay Bezabeh   Australia 2:25:26
61 Silvio Guerra   Ecuador 2:25:29
62 Mathias Ntawulikura   Rwanda 2:26:05
63 Róbert Štefko   Czech Republic 2:27:12
64 José Amado García   Guatemala 2:27:13
65 Dan Browne   United States 2:27:17
66 Han Gang   China 2:27:31
67 Eduardo Buenavista   Philippines 2:28:18
68 Driss El Himer   France 2:29:07
69 Andrés Espinosa   Mexico 2:29:43
70 Mpesela Ntlot Soeu   Lesotho 2:30:19
71 Franklin Tenorio   Ecuador 2:31:12
72 José Ernani Palalia   Mexico 2:31:41
73 Dmitriy Burmakin   Russia 2:31:51
74 Mindaugas Pukštas   Lithuania 2:33:02
75 Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od   Mongolia 2:33:24
76 Zhu Ronghua   China 2:34:02
77 Alfredo Arevalo   Guatemala 2:34:02
78 António Zeferino   Cape Verde 2:36:22
79 Valery Pisarev   Kyrgyzstan 2:40:10
80 Zepherinus Joseph   Saint Lucia 2:44:19
81 Marcel Matanin   Slovakia 2:50:26
Hendrick Ramaala   South Africa DNF After 35 km
Zebedayo Bayo   Tanzania DNF After 30 km
Hailu Negussie   Ethiopia DNF After 30 km
Viktor Röthlin   Switzerland DNF After 30 km
Al Mustafa Riyadh   Bahrain DNF After 25 km
Rômulo Wagner   Brazil DNF After 25 km
Ian Syster   South Africa DNF After 25 km
Zsolt Bácskai   Hungary DNF After 25 km
Azat Rakipov   Belarus DNF After half
Dmytro Baranovskyy   Ukraine DNF After half
Rachid Ghanmouni   Morocco DNF After half
Rachid Ziar   Algeria DNF After half
Mustapha Bennacer   Algeria DNF After half
André Luiz Ramos   Brazil DNF After half
Luis Fonseca   Venezuela DNF After half
Khalid El-Boumlili   Morocco DNF After half
John Nada Saya   Tanzania DNF After 20 km
Gil da Cruz Trindade   East Timor DNF After 20 km
Jussi Utriainen   Finland DNF After 10 km
Jean-Paul Gahimbaré   Burundi DNF After 10 km
Luc Krotwaar   Netherlands DNS

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "Marathon, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  2. ^ Clarey, Christopher (29 August 2004). "Summer 2004 Games: Marathon, A Spectator Disrupts The Marathon With a Shove". The New York Times. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  3. ^ Patrick, Dick (30 August 2004). "Italy's Baldini wins men's marathon". USA Today. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  4. ^ "Protester ruins marathon". BBC Sport. 29 August 2004. Retrieved 16 October 2015.
  5. ^ "IAAF Athens 2004: Men's Marathon Final". Athens 2004. IAAF. Retrieved 17 October 2015.
  6. ^ "Athletics at the 2004 Athens Summer Games: Men's Marathon". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 29 May 2017.
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