By K. P. Mohan
Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya joined an elite duo in Olympic history by winning his second successive marathon gold at Sapporo on Sunday.
The world record holder clocked 2:08:38 for the 42km course in temperatures around 27 degrees in winning his second Olympic title after having won the Rio gold five years ago.
Kipchoge, overwhelming favourite to win the title a second time, pulled away decisively after the 31km mark to finish 1:20 ahead of the second-placed Dutchman Abdi Nageeye, the widest margin in Olympic marathon history since 1972. Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, training partner of Nageeye, took the bronze in 2:10:00.
In winning his second marathon title in succession Kipchoge emulated the feats of Ethiopian Abebe Bikila who won in 1960 and 1964 and Waldemar Cierpinksi of the GDR who took the 1980 and 1984 titles.
“I think I have fulfilled the legacy by winning the marathon for the second time, back-to-back. I hope now to help inspire the next generation,” said Kipchoge.
“It means a lot for me, especially at this time. It was really hard last year, with the Olympic Games postponed. I am happy for the local organising committee who made this race happen. It is a sign that shows the world we are heading in the right direction – we are on the right transition to a normal life,” said Kipchoge
Kipchoge holds the marathon world record at 2:01:39 clocked in Berlin in 2018. He was the 5000m gold medal winner in the World championships in 2003 apart from being silver medallist at the same distance in 2008 Olympics and 2007 World championships.
Starting in cooler weather compared to the previous days, Kipchoge kept close contact with the leading bunch throughout the race before breaking away at 31km and being unchallenged through the last seven kilometres.
The battle for the minor medals was among Nageeye, Abdi, Lawrence Cherono of Kenya and Ayad Lamdassem of Spain. Cherono, who celebrated his 33rd birthday only yesterday, eventually finished fourth in 2:10:02 while the Spaniard followed him in fifth place with 2:10:16.
“I said so many times I wanted a top three, but I never made it. So today I was just focusing,” said Nageeye, who came 11th in Rio.
“When I reached 39km I just knew I was going to win a medal,”said Nageeye.
Abdi said without Nageeye’s encouragement when he got cramps towards the last 3km he would not have been able to take the podium. “He said you must go”, said Abdi about his training partner’s goading towards the final stages when he suffered due to the high humidity even if the temperatures were tolerable.
Among the Asians, Japanese Suguru Osako (2:10:41) came sixth, Yang Shaohui of China (2:14:58) 19th, El Hassan El Abbassi of Bahrain (2:15:56) 25th, Peng Jianhua of China (2:16:39) 32nd, Dong Guojian of China (2:21:35) 57th, Shogo Nakamura of Japan (2:22:23) 62nd and Yuma Hattori of Japan (2:30:08) 73rd.
Seventy-six of the 106 starters finished the race. Among those who dropped out at various stages included world champion Lelisa Desisa of Ethiopia, 2020 London marathon winner Shura Kitata of Ethiopia, 2012 Olympic gold medallist Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda and 2019 World championship bronze medallist Amos Kipruto of Kenya. The drop-outs also included Joohan Oh of Korea and Bahrain’s Shumi Dechasa and Alemu Bekele.
Tachlowini Gabriyesos, the first refugee team member to achieve an Olympic qualifying standard, performed well, clocking 2:14:02 to finish 16th.
The medals in marathon, both men and women’s, were presented at the closing ceremony in Tokyo. IOC President Thomas Bach and IOC member Ms Anita DeFrantz presented the medals to the women and men medal winners with the World Athletics President, Lord Sebastian Coe presenting the bouquets.
The US topped the athletics medals tally with seven gold, twelve silver and seven bronze medals. Italy which pulled off a few surprises was second with five gold medals. Kenya took third with 4-4-2.
Among Asian countries China finished seventh with two gold, two silver and one bronze medals. India and Qatar won a gold each while host Japan had one silver and bronze and Bahrain one silver.
