Olympic legend and one of the greatest athletes of all time, Eliud Kipchoge, announced his retirement on Sunday after failing to finish the marathon in Paris 2024.
All eyes of the fans were on the Kenyan legend. The Kenyan was the protagonist of one of the iconic images of the Games, and one that will probably go down in history, when he stopped at kilometre 28.
He started talking to a policeman and continued his journey on foot along the security lane before the astonished gaze of the fans, who saw him walk to number 31. Suffering from stomach pain, he decided to retire without being able to defend the gold medals from Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
Ethiopian Tamirat Tola, who was included in the list of athletes called up at the last minute due to the withdrawal of Sisay Lemma, took victory in the Paris marathon, with an Olympic record (2 hours, 6 minutes, 26 seconds).
Tola, 32, entered the history books of Olympic and world athletics with a sublime race. He did it in Paris, in a marathon that was difficult due to its profile, with slopes of up to 13%, but with a very attractive route passing through emblematic places in the French capital.
The Ethiopian, winner of the New York marathon in 2023, He escaped after kilometre 25 and, from then on, he went solo, opening a gap with the chasing group, even holding out at the critical moment of the route, before kilometre 30, with a slope that many of the participants had already feared.
Tola stopped the clock at 2h06:26 and was followed on the podium by Belgian of Somali origin Bashir Abdi, with 2h06:47, and Kenyan Benson Kipruto, third with 2h07:00.
Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, who returned to compete in an Olympic marathon 12 years later of London 2012, acknowledged that, although all the spotlight was on the retired Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and him, the “current protagonists are the young people”.
“It was a difficult route, with many hills in some sections. “If you’re not in top form for this route it would be very hard, as it was,” said Bekele, who finished in 39th place and revealed that around kilometre 15 he felt “a pull in his hamstring” that hampered his performance.
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