Tola wins

Marathon: Substitute wins gold for Ethiopia

Tamirat Tola

(Bild: AP)

A substitute is Olympic champion in the marathon! Tamirat Tola, who only joined the Ethiopian squad after the injury of his compatriot Sisay Lemma, won the classic 42.195 m race through the streets of Paris in a new Olympic record time of 2:06:26 hours.

He thus brought the fifth marathon gold in Olympic history to Ethiopia and followed in the footsteps of Abebe Bikila (1960, 1964), Mamo Wolde (1968) and Gezahegne Abera (2000). Tamirat Tola was already world marathon champion in Eugene in 2022 and third in the 10,000 m at the Rio Games. He celebrated another outstanding success by winning the New York Marathon in 203.

(Bild: AFP)

Tola, who improved the previous Olympic record of the Kenyan Wanjiru (2:06:32/1988), won ahead of the Belgian Bashi Abdi (2:06:47) and the Kenyan Benson Kipruto (2:07:00). In twelfth place, Richard Ringer, the husband of Austria's classic runner Nada Ida Pauer, ran a sensationally strong race in 2:09:18!

Kipchoge beaten
However, Eliud Kipchoge's dream of his third Olympic victory in a row was already over on the first climb after a good 15 kilometers. He dropped back from seventh to 58th place by the half marathon. He gave up around ten kilometers before the finish.

Eliud Kipchoge (center) had to give up.

(Bild: AFP)

With his two golds in 2016 and 2021, which put him on a par with Abebe Bikila (Ethiopia/1960 and 1964) and Waldemar Cierpinski (GDR/1976 and 1980), and his century race in Vienna under 2:00 hours at the top of his incomparable career, he was already immortal before the Games in Paris.

Julia Mayer's big day
The men's race is over - Sunday is Julia Mayer's big day! Last December, she qualified for the Games in Paris with her fantastic record of 2:26:53 in Valencia. However, the fact that Julia Mayer, who competes for DSG Vienna, is 87th and second last on the entry list shows just how incredibly high the standard in the women's marathon has become. So don't expect miracles from her on today's city course between City Hall and the finish at the Dome des Invalides. She does not want to make any predictions. But if she finishes in the middle of the field, as she did at the World Championships in Budapest (50th), that would be a great success.

Julia Mayer

(Bild: zVg)

Time plays a subordinate role in the marathon in Paris on Sunday. It's all about the placing, especially as the course is one of the most difficult in the history of the Olympic Games. It has an altitude difference of 436 meters - only in Athens in 1896/2004 and in St. Louis in 1904 were the marathon courses tougher in terms of altitude. So if Julia Mayer finishes with a time of around 2:40 and a place around 45 to 50, that would be great. In any case, she is only the third Austrian to qualify for an Olympic women's marathon. Before her, only Eva-Maria Gradwohl in 2008 in Beijing (57th) and Andrea Mayr in 2012 in London (53rd) and 2016 in Rio (64th) achieved this.

Already once around the world
The ÖLV record holder is rightly "very proud" to have managed to qualify at all and to be able to "compete for Austria". The preparation has gone very well. "So far," she summarized her running career in Paris, "I've already run around the world once." She now has a good 40,000 kilometers of running in her legs. She has full confidence in her coach Vincent Vermeulen, who has always prepared her perfectly. That is why she is approaching the Olympic marathon as calmly as possible thanks to her already excellent experience. "For me, this is a competition like any other."

But a marathon with pitfalls and many uncertainties. The question is how to cope with the uphill and downhill sections. "But I'm doing my race, just concentrating on myself." She formulates her goal simply: "I want to leave as many people behind me as possible." Simply formulated, but difficult to put into practice.