Tamirat Tola is the 2024 Olympic marathon champion after a grueling race in Paris.
Just one day before his 33rd birthday, the Ethiopian proved the strongest man in a stellar field to win in 2:06:26, breaking the Olympic record held by the late Sammy Wanjiru since the 2008 Beijing Games.
Having been a late addition to his country’s team following the withdrawal of 2024 Boston champion Sissay Lemma, Tola now adds Olympic gold to 2022 World Championship gold and his 2023 TCS New York City Marathon victory.
On a course that promised to test the hardiest of marathon runners with its daunting hills in the second half, Tola was the man who decided to shut down an early assault by Eyob Faniel, and he was past the Italian as they crested the first gradient of the course with 15km completed.
He continued to set the pace despite the chasing pack coming back to him, and made his first move as they attacked the first truly punishing uphill section of the course nearing 30km.
The first man to make in-roads on Tola’s lead was Great Britain’s Emile Cairess, but his efforts to stay in touch up the nine per cent gradient took its toll on him as he was passed by Tola’s countryman Deresa Geleta on the other side.
Geleta was joined by 2024 Tokyo champion Benson Kipruto and Belgium’s Bashir Abdi as the only men with a sniff of chasing Tola down, but his lead extended after the 35km mark.
Kipruto, the world's fastest man in 2024 after a 2:02:16 win in Tokyo in March, looked like he was gearing up to hunt the leader down, but it was eventually Abdi who took command of the battle behind Tola, and he earned an upgrade from his bronze won in Tokyo in 2021, with Kipruto having to settle for the bronze.
Cairess earned a battling fourth place, but the plaudits all went to Tola, who becomes Ethiopia's first Olympic marathon champion since Gezahegne Abera in 2000, and earns his country its first gold of the 2024 Games.
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