Day 15 Paris 2024 Olympics: men’s marathon

10 August 2024: On a 30C morning, at 8:00am in Paris, a field of 81 runners started the 42.195-kilometre men’s marathon for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Beginning at the Hotel de Ville, coursing the River Seine to the Versailles Castle and back, 75 runners finished.

Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia won gold in an Olympic record time of 2:06:26. Closely behind was Bashir Abdi of Belgium with a season’s best time for him of 2:06:47, taking the silver medal. In bronze medal position was Benson Kipruto of Kenya with a time of 2:07:00.

Great Britain’s Emile Cairess finished fourth with 2:07:29. USA competitors Conner Mantz and Clayton Young finished together in eighth and ninth positions with 2:08:12 and 2:08:44.

Nicolas Navarro was the fastest Frenchman at 2:09:56 to finish 16^th – a season’s best for him. Patrick Tiernan was the fastest Australian at 2:10:34 to finish 24^th.

Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge didn’t finish for the first time in his running career. The two-time Olympic marathon gold medallist – at Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020 – said it would be his last Olympics but not his last marathon.

I was positioned at the 38-kilometre mark with a long view beside the River Seine, just after a drink station and with a view of the Eiffel Tower near the finish line.

MARTINA NICOLLS

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Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, and foreign aid audits and evaluations. She lives in Paris.

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