Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge cemented his status as the greatest marathon runner of all time as he became the third elite man in history to retain Olympic men’s marathon.
The 36-year-old world record holder comfortably won the gold medal crossing the finishing line in a remarkable two hours eight minutes and 38 seconds, despite the hot and humid conditions.
His fellow Kenyan Lawrence Cherono, was piped for fourth place finish with Netherlands’ Abdi Nageeye taking silver in 2:09.58 while Abdi Bashir of Belgium took bronze in 2:10.10.
Kipchoge broke for home with twelve miles to go leaving Cherono who had looked the stronger in the mid-stages of the race, far behind. The pair were seconds ahead of their nearest challenger at the halfway mark, and looked on course to trouble the Olympic record of two hours six minutes and 32 seconds that was set by the late Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya in 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But the searing hot and humid condition slowed the pace and Kipchoge eventually crossed the line just two minutes and six seconds shy of the Olympic record.
The extreme weather conditions claimed the third Kenyan in the race Amos Kipruto who dropped at 30km mark as he couldn’t keep the pace despite being on the leading pack.
Prior to the Olympics, Kipchoge stated that he was ready to defend his title that he won in Rio de Jenairo and he comfortably achieved it in streets of Sapporo, on the northern island of Hokkaido here in Japan.
World champion Lelisa Desisa and Shura Kitata of Ethiopia were his main challengers for the title but they faded away from the leading pack before dropping out of the tough marathon.
Kipchoge now joins Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila (1960 and 1964) and East Germany’s Waldemar Cierpinski (1976 and 1980) as the only runners to win two consecutive gold medals on the Olympic stage.
He had won won gold in the marathon at the Rio Olympics in 2016 and broke the world record in 2018 with a time of 2:01:39.
He is also the only runner in history to run a sub-two hour marathon, which he did in Vienna in 2019, although that time did not stand as an official record.
