When he crossed the finish line first in the 5,000 on Saturday night, he became just the second runner to win the 5,000 and 10,000 in back-to-back Olympics. The one color of Olympic medal he lacked in his illustrious career finally has been captured.
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Kipchoge – the warm favorite after winning six of his previous seven marathons, including London earlier this year in a time just outside the world record – completed a full set of Olympic medals.
“I was hoping for a top twenty position, I didn’t get that, but I’m coming away from this hopefully healthy, hopefully fit and hopefully able to target a faster marathon now and use this as a stepping stone for future things”. On his approach to the finish line, Lilesa had raised his arms and crossed them above his head in a protest against violence back home in Ethiopia. “I raised my hands to support with the Oromo protest”. He said he stood with protestors, and that the government was “killing our people”.
“It was a championship and it was a bit slow so I chose to take over”. “My relatives are in prison and if they talk about democratic rights they are killed”. “There was somebody, Tanzania I believe, that said, ‘My country did not send me here to not finish.’ I cried through the race”. He had finished fifth in the 10,000 metres in Rio after winning a silver medal in the event at the 2012 London Olympics.
“I was about a minute down on where I wanted to be at halfway, but I knew I couldn’t push any harder than that first half”. “There’s nothing to celebrate about”.
“Definitely I had my own game plan and I stuck with that”.
His Rio bronze is the first men’s marathon medal for Team USA since 2004, when Meb Keflezighi won the silver medal at the Athens Games.
“This is history, the first time the women and the men win” in the same Olympics “and it is the best moment of my life”.
The wet conditions meant spectators on the course were sparse in spots and led to several runners having to re-tie their shoelaces.
Sensing that from this point he would be all alone, Kipchoge stepped up the pace even as Lilesa and Rupp stayed on his heels as the race entered the final 10km.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Galen Rupp (USA), Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) and Feyisa Lilesa (ETH) on the podium after the men’s marathon in the Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games at Sambodromo.
Rupp said the marathon is a special event that he didn’t really understand until this year.
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Ward, who finished third at the Olympic Marathon Trials, already likes what he has seen from Rupp. Just for the fun of it – and to celebrate the weather in North London being temporarily better than that in Rio – I had a crack at reaching the 4 minute 55 seconds per mile pace he averaged in his 2:08:44 victory. Shalane Flanagan finished sixth, Desiree Linden seventh and Amy Cragg ninth for the best team finish in the women’s marathon.
