Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

The men's marathon event at the 2020 Summer Olympics started at 07:00 on 8 August 2021 in Sapporo, Japan.[1] 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.

Men's marathon
at the Games of the XXXII Olympiad
Olympic Athletics
VenueSapporo
Date8 August 2021
Competitors106 from 46 nations
Winning time2:08:38
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Eliud Kipchoge  Kenya
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Abdi Nageeye  Netherlands
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Bashir Abdi  Belgium
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Official Video Highlights

The race was moved north, from Tokyo to Sapporo, because the latter is on average 4 °C (7 °F) cooler in August, as decided in 2019 by the IOC.[2][3] Sapporo recorded 26.0 °C (78.8 °F) at 07:00 when the race started, not much different from Tokyo[4] The gifts were presented by David Katz, United States; World Athletics Competition Commission Member.

Summary

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Before the start of the race, four athletes were introduced and took their positions on the start line, host nation Japanese champion Suguru Osako, Rio bronze medalist Galen Rupp, 2019 World Champion Lelisa Desisa and Rio gold medalist, world record holder Eliud Kipchoge, honored with the applause of his competitors. 102 others then toed the line with them. While some fell off the back from the start, the lead group filled the width of the street. About two kilometres into the race, the first leader, Jeison Suárez, began to assert himself. Suárez stayed on the front for the next 22 kilometres, joined by a succession of other frontrunners; Yang Shaohui, Amanal Petros, Mohamed Reda El Aaraby, Stephen Mokoka and Daniel Ferreira do Nascimento all under the watchful eye of Kipchoge, his Kenyan teammates Lawrence Cherono and Amos Kipruto, Desisa and Rupp.

A pack of over fifty at 5,000 metres dwindled to about twenty by the half way mark as other notable runners fell off the back, with many dropping out. Going in to the 25,000 meter mark, Kipchoge upped the pace. The pack became a string of runners trying to chase, led by the Kenyans and Rupp. At 28,000 metres Kipchoge attempted a break but was caught shortly after. Just after the 30,000 meter mark, he attempted another break, this time staying well ahead of the other competitors, eventually building a 27 second lead over the chase pack that had dwindled to Cherono, Ayad Lamdassem and Bashir Abdi with Abdi Nageeye hanging on a few seconds later. With Cherono at the point over the next 5,000 metres, the remaining foursome congealed into a pack, each trying to figure a tactic to take silver as Kipchoge pulled away into the distance. Coming from 30 seconds back of the group, Osako was rapidly making up ground. With 1,000 metres to go, Cherono tried to make a break, but Nageeye held onto his back. Cherono tried to break again, this time Lamdassem was dropped. Approaching the finish line Nageeye, sensing Cherono was spent, accelerated and waved to Abdi to follow him. Abdi responded, with Nageeye getting silver and Abdi bronze two seconds up on Cherono. Kipchoge won by 1:20, greater than his Rio margin of victory.[5][6]

Very tough weather conditions forced many runners to retire. These included the 2012 champion Stephen Kiprotich and all three Ethiopian runners, among them the current World champion Lelisa Desisa. Only 76 out of 106 athletes finished.[7] The last one was Iván Zarco from Honduras, who was essentially running alone for the whole race and finished 36 minutes behind the winner. Most of the race participants, including Nageeye and Bashir, finished with the season best results, which mainly reflected the lack of competitions due to the COVID-19 limitations.

Kipchoge became the third man to successfully defend the Olympic Marathon title, after Abebe Bikila and Waldemar Cierpinski.[8]

Background

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This was the 29th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Five of the top 10 runners from Rio 2016 returned: gold medalist Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya, bronze medalist Galen Rupp of the United States, fifth-place finisher Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania, seventh-place finisher Tadesse Abraham of Switzerland, and ninth-place finisher Callum Hawkins of Great Britain.

No nations made their men's marathon debut in Tokyo. The United States made its 28th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

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Approximately 80 athletes were initially expected to compete (target number of 80) by entry time or ranking; the final number was 110 runners qualified by time, with NOCs universality places yet to enter athletes in addition to the 110 qualifying through time, much more than the expected due to the postponed Games (4 universality places were used in 2016). The qualification period for the entry standard (2:11:30) was from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2021, with a maximum quota of 3 athletes per National Olympic Committee. Performances achieved between 6 April 2020 and 30 November 2020 were not considered in the qualification system.[9]

A National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's marathon if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 2:11:30. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the IAAF World Rankings pathway." Runners in the top 10 at the 2019 world championship, the top 5 at any IAAF Gold Label marathon, and the top 10 at the Marathon Major Series were deemed to have met the qualifying standard, regardless of actual time. The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 80 is reached.[9][10] More than 80 athletes (after application of the 3 per NOC rule) have met the qualifying standard.

To be a qualifying performance, the course had to have been certified in the last five years by a Grade A or Grade B road course measurer. In order to be eligible for the qualifying standard time, the elevation decrease could not be more than 1 metre per kilometre. For world rankings, the elevation decrease could exceed that rate, but a correction would be made to the score.[9]

The qualifying period was originally from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 31 May 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 January 2019 to 1 December 2018. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the IAAF. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period.[9][11] In July 2020, World Athletics announced that the suspension period would be lifted for the road events (marathons and race walks) on 1 September 2020.[12]

NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the marathon.[9]

Qualification ended on 31 May 2021. Both marathons had a target number of 80 athletes, but a larger number of athletes have fulfilled the qualifying criteria and will compete in Sapporo, the venue of the Olympic road events. In the men's field, 106 athletes have qualified (with a maximum of 3 per nation).

Qualification standard No. of athletes NOC Nominated athletes
Entry standard – 2:11:30 3   Australia Liam Adams
Jack Rayner
Brett Robinson
3   Bahrain Alemu Bekele
Shumi Dechasa
El-Hassan El-Abbassi
3   Belgium Bashir Abdi
Dieter Kersten
Koen Naert
3   Brazil Daniel Chaves da Silva
Daniel Ferreira do Nascimento
Paulo Roberto Paula
3   Canada Trevor Hofbauer
Cameron Levins
Ben Preisner[13]
3   China Dong Guojian
Peng Jianhua
Yang Shaohui[14]
3   Eritrea Yohanes Ghebregergis
Goitom Kifle
Oqbe Kibrom Ruesom
3   Ethiopia Lelisa Desisa
Shura Kitata
Sisay Lemma
3   France Morhad Amdouni
Hassan Chahdi
Nicolas Navarro[15]
3   Germany Amanal Petros
Hendrik Pfeiffer
Richard Ringer
3   Great Britain Ben Connor
Callum Hawkins
Chris Thompson
3   Ireland Paul Pollock
Stephen Scullion
Kevin Seaward
3   Israel Haimro Alame
Girmaw Amare
Marhu Teferi
3   Italy Yassine El Fathaoui
Eyob Faniel
Yassine Rachik
3   Kenya Lawrence Cherono
Eliud Kipchoge
Amos Kipruto
3   Mexico Jesús Arturo Esparza
Juan Pacheco
José Luis Santana
3   Morocco Mohamed Reda El Aaraby
Othmane El Goumri
Hamza Sahli
3   Netherlands Khalid Choukoud
Abdi Nageeye
Bart van Nunen
3   Poland Marcin Chabowski
Arkadiusz Gardzielewski
Adam Nowicki
3   South Africa Elroy Gelant
Desmond Mokgobu
Stephen Mokoka
3   Spain Javier Guerra
Ayad Lamdassem
Daniel Mateo
0   Sweden Ebba Tulu Chala
Mustafa Mohamed
David Nilsson
2   Turkey Yavuz Ağralı
Polat Kemboi Arıkan
Kaan Kigen Özbilen[16]
3   Uganda Felix Chemonges
Stephen Kiprotich
Fred Musobo[17]
3   Ukraine Bohdan-Ivan Horodyskyy
Mykola Nyzhnyk
Oleksandr Sitkovskyy
3   United States Abdi Abdirahman
Jacob Riley
Galen Rupp
2   Argentina Joaquín Arbe
Eulalio Muñoz
2   Austria Peter Herzog
Lemawork Ketema
2   Colombia Iván Darío González
Jeison Suárez
2   Denmark Thijs Nijhuis
Abdi Hakin Ulad
2   Estonia Roman Fosti
Tiidrek Nurme
2   Japan Shogo Nakamura[18]
Suguru Osako[19]
2   Mongolia Tseveenravdangiin Byambajav
Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od
2   New Zealand Malcolm Hicks
Zane Robertson
2   South Korea Oh Joo-han
Shim Jung-sub
2   Rwanda John Hakizimana
Félicien Muhitira
2   Tanzania Gabriel Geay
Alphonce Simbu
1   Burundi Olivier Irabaruta
1   Lesotho Khoarahlane Seutloali
1   Namibia Tomas Hilifa Rainhold
1   North Korea Ri Kang-bom
1   Norway Sondre Nordstad Moen
1   Panama Jorge Castelblanco
1   Paraguay Derlis Ayala
1   Peru Cristhian Pacheco
1   Refugee Olympic Team Tachlowini Gabriyesos
1   Switzerland Tadesse Abraham
Finishing position at designated competitions 1   Japan Yuma Hattori
World ranking 0
Universality Places 1   Honduras Iván Zarco
Total 106

Competition format and course

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As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The marathon distance of 42.195 km was run over a course that starts with two laps around Odori Park. The route then includes a large loop (about half the marathon's length) through the streets of Sapporo, passing by Nakajima Park, Sapporo TV Tower, and Hokkaido University, and crossing the Toyohira River twice. The course then takes two trips around a smaller (approximately 10 kilometres) section of the large loop. The finish line is back at Odori Park.[20]

Records

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

World record   Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) 2:01:39 Berlin, Germany 16 September 2018
Olympic record   Samuel Wanjiru (KEN) 2:06:32 Beijing, China 24 August 2008
Area Time Athlete Nation
Africa (records) 2:01:39 WR Eliud Kipchoge   Kenya
Asia (records) 2:04:43 El-Hassan El-Abbassi   Bahrain
Europe (records) 2:04:16 Kaan Kigen Özbilen   Turkey
North, Central America
and Caribbean
(records)
2:05:38 Khalid Khannouchi   United States
Oceania (records) 2:07:51* Robert de Castella   Australia
South America (records) 2:06:05 Ronaldo da Costa   Brazil

* — Boston Marathon, aided road course per IAAF rule 260.28

No new records were established during the competition.

Schedule

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All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

The men's marathon took place on a single day.[1]

Date Time Round
Sunday, 8 August 2021 7:00 Final

Results

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Rank Athlete Nation Time Time Behind Notes
  Eliud Kipchoge   Kenya 2:08:38
  Abdi Nageeye   Netherlands 2:09:58 +1:20 SB
  Bashir Abdi   Belgium 2:10:00 +1:22 SB
4 Lawrence Cherono   Kenya 2:10:02 +1:24 SB
5 Ayad Lamdassem   Spain 2:10:16 +1:38 SB
6 Suguru Osako   Japan 2:10:41 +2:03 SB
7 Alphonce Simbu   Tanzania 2:11:35 +2:57 SB
8 Galen Rupp   United States 2:11:41 +3:03 SB
9 Othmane El Goumri   Morocco 2:11:58 +3:20
10 Koen Naert   Belgium 2:12:13 +3:35 SB
11 Mohamed Reda El Aaraby   Morocco 2:12:22 +3:44
12 Nicolas Navarro   France 2:12:50 +4:12 SB
13 Marhu Teferi   Israel 2:13:02 +4:24
14 Goitom Kifle   Eritrea 2:13:22 +4:44
15 Jeison Suárez   Colombia 2:13:29 +4:51
16 Tachlowini Gabriyesos   Refugee Olympic Team 2:14:02 +5:24
17 Morhad Amdouni   France 2:14:33 +5:55 SB
18 Hamza Sahli   Morocco 2:14:48 +6:10 SB
19 Yang Shaohui   China 2:14:58 +6:20
20 Eyob Faniel   Italy 2:15:11 +6:33 SB
21 Daniel Mateo   Spain 2:15:21 +6:43 SB
22 Yohanes Ghebregergis   Eritrea 2:15:34 +6:56
23 Abdi Hakin Ulad   Denmark 2:15:50 +7:12 SB
24 Liam Adams   Australia 2:15:51 +7:13 SB
25 Richard Ringer   Germany 2:16:08 +7:30
26 Tiidrek Nurme   Estonia 2:16:16 +7:38 SB
27 Girmaw Amare   Israel 2:16:17 +7:39
28 Jacob Riley   United States 2:16:26 +7:48 SB
29 Amanal Petros   Germany 2:16:33 +7:55 SB
30 Eulalio Muñoz   Argentina 2:16:35 +7:57 SB
31 Peng Jianhua   China 2:16:39 +8:01
32 Javier Guerra   Spain 2:16:42 +8:04 SB
33 Elroy Gelant   South Africa 2:16:43 +8:05
34 Oqbe Kibrom Ruesom   Eritrea 2:16:57 +8:19 SB
35 Zane Robertson   New Zealand 2:17:04 +8:26 SB
36 Haimro Alame   Israel 2:17:17 +8:39
37 Adam Nowicki   Poland 2:17:19 +8:41
38 Olivier Irabaruta   Burundi 2:17:44 +9:06 SB
39 Sondre Nordstad Moen   Norway 2:17:59 +9:21 SB
40 Abdihakem Abdirahman   United States 2:18:27 +9:49 SB
41 Tomas Hilifa Rainhold   Namibia 2:18:28 +9:50
42 Derlis Ayala   Paraguay 2:18:34 +9:56 SB
43 Fred Musobo   Uganda 2:18:39 +10:01
44 Hassan Chahdi   France 2:18:40 +10:02 SB
45 Ben Preisner   Canada 2:19:27 +10:49 SB
46 Yassine El Fathaoui   Italy 2:19:44 +11:06 SB
47 Trevor Hofbauer   Canada 2:19:57 +11:19 SB
48 Shim Jung-sub   South Korea 2:20:36 +11:58
49 Hendrik Pfeiffer   Germany 2:20:43 +12:05 SB
50 Felix Chemonges   Uganda 2:20:53 +12:15
51 Yavuz Ağralı   Turkey 2:21:00 +12:22
52 Joaquín Arbe   Argentina 2:21:15 +12:37 SB
53 Chris Thompson   Great Britain 2:21:29 +12:51
54 Tseveenravdangiin Byambajav   Mongolia 2:21:32 +12:54 SB
55 José Luis Santana   Mexico 2:21:32 +12:54 SB
56 Dong Guojian   China 2:21:35 +12:57
57 Kevin Seaward   Ireland 2:21:45 +13:07 SB
58 Dieter Kersten   Belgium 2:22:06 +13:28
59 Cristhian Pacheco   Peru 2:22:12 +13:34 SB
60 Peter Herzog   Austria 2:22:15 +13:37 SB
61 Shogo Nakamura   Japan 2:22:23 +13:45 SB
62 Arkadiusz Gardzielewski   Poland 2:22:50 +14:12
63 Malcolm Hicks   New Zealand 2:23:12 +14:34 SB
64 Juan Pacheco   Mexico 2:23:41 +15:03 SB
65 Brett Robinson   Australia 2:24:04 +15:26 SB
66 Khoarahlane Seutloali   Lesotho 2:25:03 +16:25 SB
67 Roman Fosti   Estonia 2:25:37 +16:59
68 Paulo Roberto Paula   Brazil 2:26:08 +17:30 SB
69 Thijs Nijhuis   Denmark 2:26:59 +18:21 SB
70 Paul Pollock   Ireland 2:27:48 +19:10 SB
71 Cameron Levins   Canada 2:28:43 +20:05
72 Yuma Hattori   Japan 2:30:08 +21:30 SB
73 Jesús Arturo Esparza   Mexico 2:31:51 +23:13 SB
74 Jorge Castelblanco   Panama 2:33:22 +24:44 SB
75 Iván Zarco   Honduras 2:44:36 +35:58 SB
Amos Kipruto   Kenya 35 km DNF
Bart van Nunen   Netherlands 35 km DNF
Stephen Mokoka   South Africa 30 km DNF
Lelisa Desisa   Ethiopia 30 km DNF
John Hakizimana   Rwanda 30 km DNF
Khalid Choukoud   Netherlands 30 km DNF
Marcin Chabowski   Poland 30 km DNF
Ben Connor   Great Britain 30 km DNF
Desmond Mokgobu   South Africa 30 km DNF
Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od   Mongolia 30 km DNF
Daniel Ferreira do Nascimento   Brazil 25 km DNF
Tadesse Abraham   Switzerland 25 km DNF
Yassine Rachik   Italy 25 km DNF
Callum Hawkins   Great Britain 25 km DNF
Bohdan-Ivan Horodyskyy   Ukraine 25 km DNF
Polat Kemboi Arıkan   Turkey 25 km DNF
Iván Darío González   Colombia 25 km DNF
Sisay Lemma   Ethiopia Half DNF
Shumi Dechasa   Bahrain Half DNF
Mykola Nyzhnyk   Ukraine 20 km DNF
Lemawork Ketema   Austria 15 km DNF
Stephen Scullion   Ireland 15 km DNF
Oh Joo-han   South Korea 10 km DNF
Alemu Bekele   Bahrain 10 km DNF
Stephen Kiprotich   Uganda 10 km DNF
Gabriel Geay   Tanzania 10 km DNF
Daniel Chaves da Silva   Brazil 10 km DNF
Oleksandr Sitkovskyy   Ukraine 10 km DNF
Shura Kitata   Ethiopia 5 km DNF
Jack Rayner   Australia 5 km DNF
El-Hassan El-Abbassi   Bahrain DQ

References

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  1. ^ a b "Athletics Competition Schedule". Tokyo 2020. 23 April 2018. Archived from the original on 5 August 2020. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  2. ^ 杉野謙太郎 (16 October 2019). "東京五輪マラソンと競歩、札幌での実施を計画…IOC". Yomiuri Shimbun. Archived from the original on 16 October 2019.
  3. ^ Longman, Jeré (7 August 2020). "Eliud Kipchoge finished far ahead of the pack to defend his men's Olympic marathon title". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  4. ^ "大迫、服部は先頭集団 男子マラソン5キロ通過". Sankei Shimbun. Archived from the original on 8 August 2021. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Marathon hugs, Eliud Kipchoge, Abdi Nageai, Bashir Abdi hugs, doublers". 8 August 2021. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  6. ^ Longman, Jeré (8 August 2021). "Eliud Kipchoge Wins Olympic Marathon Again, Securing His Legacy". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  7. ^ In the men's marathon, the competition venue was changed to Sapporo to avoid the heat and humidity of central Tokyo in the summer. Nevertheless, on the day of the race, 30 athletes, less than 30% of the participating athletes, broke down on the way due to poor physical condition and pulled out of the race. This is much higher than the percentage of abstainers in the same race at the last Rio Olympics (about 10%). "What led to nearly 30% of runners pulling out of Tokyo Olympic men's marathon?". The Mainichi. 10 August 2021. Archived from the original on 18 August 2021. Retrieved 26 August 2021.
  8. ^ "Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge repeats as Olympic men's marathon champion". ABC News. Archived from the original on 15 August 2021. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  9. ^ a b c d e "Qualification System – Games of the XXXII Olympiad – Athletics" (PDF). IAAF. Archived (PDF) from the original on 31 March 2019. Retrieved 31 March 2019.
  10. ^ "IAAF to follow other sports with world ranking system for athletes". BBC Sport. 7 March 2018. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
  11. ^ "Olympic qualification period suspended until 1 December 2020". World Athletics. 6 April 2020. Archived from the original on 9 April 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
  12. ^ "Olympic qualifying system to recommence for road athletes from September 2020". 28 July 2020. Archived from the original on 28 November 2020. Retrieved 28 November 2020.
  13. ^ "Athletes named to Canada's Tokyo Olympic team". CBC. 4 June 2021. Archived from the original on 5 June 2021. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  14. ^ "Zhang, Peng clinch Olympic slots with victories at Xuzhou Marathon". People's Daily. 12 April 2021. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  15. ^ "Les qualifiés et sélectionnés français pour Tokyo 2020". Olympics. 27 May 2021. Archived from the original on 2 June 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  16. ^ "Türkiye'nin Tokyo 2020 maraton kadrosu kesinleşti". TRT Spor. 25 May 2021. Archived from the original on 25 May 2021. Retrieved 29 May 2021.
  17. ^ "OLYMPICS: Kiprotich picked for Uganda marathon team". The Independent (Uganda). 3 May 2021. Archived from the original on 9 May 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  18. ^ "Nakamura and Maeda win Japan's Marathon Grand Championship". IAAF. 15 September 2019. Archived from the original on 16 September 2019. Retrieved 17 September 2019.
  19. ^ "Athletics: Ichiyama, Osako clinch Japan's last Olympic marathon spots". Kyodo News. 8 March 2020. Archived from the original on 22 May 2021. Retrieved 22 May 2021.
  20. ^ "The New Olympic Marathon Course Has Been Unveiled". Runners World. 19 December 2019. Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 30 August 2020.