Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

The men's marathon at the 2008 Summer Olympics took place on 24 August at 7:30am in Beijing, ending in the Beijing National Stadium.[1] It was (as of today) the last time in Summer Olympics history that the start and/or finish of the men's marathon route was located inside the Olympic Stadium. Ninety-five athletes from 56 nations competed.[2] The winner of the event was Samuel Wanjiru of Kenya, who set an Olympic record in the time of two hours, six minutes, and 32 seconds.[3] It was Kenya's first victory in the men's marathon. Morocco won its first medal in the event since 1960, with Jaouad Gharib's silver. Tsegay Kebede of Ethiopia took bronze.

Men's marathon
at the Games of the XXIX Olympiad
Samuel Wanjiru
VenueBeijing
DatesAugust 24
Competitors95 from 56 nations
Winning time2:06:32 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Samuel Wanjiru
 Kenya
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Jaouad Gharib
 Morocco
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Tsegay Kebede
 Ethiopia
← 2004
2012 →

Summary

edit

It began in the early morning instead of the traditional late at night start. Through 10k, a group of 8 was at front. They were all broken down to five at 20k. At the front was Eritrean Yonas Kifle, Ethiopian Deriba Merga, Kenya's Martin Lel and Sammy Wanjiru, and Moroccan Jaouad Gharib. over the next 10k Deriba Merga started to press the pace, dropping Lel and Kifle. Just after 30k, Sammy Wanjiru attacked Deriba Merga who would crack and fade out of the medals. Sammy Wanjiru continued to sustain his gap back to Gharib. Gharib slowly reeled the deficit back but Wanjiru won the gold medal in an Olympic record 2:06:32. Gharib got silver, and Tsegaye Kebede pulled himself into third to take the bronze.

Background

edit

This was the 26th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. The defending champion, Stefano Baldini of Italy, was the only returning runner from the top ten finishers in the 2004 marathon. The reigning champion (from 2007) was Luke Kibet Bowen of Kenya; he had been injured during rioting in Kenya and had not yet regained top form, but did enter as an injury replacement. Jaouad Gharib of Morocco had won the 2003 and 2005 world championships; he competed in Beijing. The favorite would have been well-established 10,000 metres runner Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia, who had started competing in marathons in 2005 and broken the world record at the 2007 Berlin race; Haile did not run in Beijing due to air quality concerns. The race was thus "wide open."[2]

Eritrea, Kazakhstan, and Montenegro each made their first appearance in Olympic men's marathons. The United States made its 25th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

edit

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) was able to enter up to three entrants providing they had met the A qualifying standard (2:15:00) in the qualifying period (1 January 2007 to 23 July 2008). NOCs were also permitted to enter one athlete providing he had met the B standard (2:18:00) in the same qualifying period.[4] The maximum number of athletes per nation had been set at 3 since the 1930 Olympic Congress.

Competition format and course

edit

As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards was run over a point-to-point route.[2]

Records

edit

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

World record   Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) 2:04:26 Berlin, Germany 28 September 2007
Olympic record   Carlos Lopes (POR) 2:09:21 Los Angeles, United States 12 August 1984

Samuel Wanjiru set a new Olympic record at 2:06:32.

Schedule

edit

All times are China Standard Time (UTC+8)

Date Time Round
Sunday, 24 August 2008 7:30 Final

Results

edit

Seventy-six runners finished; 19 did not.[5]

Rank Athlete Nation Time Notes
  Samuel Wanjiru   Kenya 2:06:32 OR
  Jaouad Gharib   Morocco 2:07:16
  Tsegaye Kebede   Ethiopia 2:10:00
4 Deriba Merga   Ethiopia 2:10:21
5 Martin Lel   Kenya 2:10:24
6 Viktor Röthlin   Switzerland 2:10:35
7 Gashaw Asfaw   Ethiopia 2:10:52
8 Yared Asmerom   Eritrea 2:11:11
9 Dathan Ritzenhein   United States 2:11:59
10 Ryan Hall   United States 2:12:33
11 Mike Fokoroni   Zimbabwe 2:13:17 PB
12 Stefano Baldini   Italy 2:13:25
13 Tsuyoshi Ogata   Japan 2:13:26 SB
14 Grigoriy Andreyev   Russia 2:13:33
15 Ruggero Pertile   Italy 2:13:39
16 José Manuel Martínez   Spain 2:14:00
17 Francis Kirwa   Finland 2:14:22
18 Lee Myong-Seung   South Korea 2:14:37
19 Janne Holmén   Finland 2:14:44
20 Abderrahim Goumri   Morocco 2:15:00
21 Aleksey Sokolov   Russia 2:15:57
22 Brian Sell   United States 2:16:07
23 Ottaviano Andriani   Italy 2:16:10
24 Dan Robinson   Great Britain 2:16:14
25 Deng Haiyang   China 2:16:17
26 Abderrahime Bouramdane   Morocco 2:17:42
27 Vasyl Matviychuk   Ukraine 2:17:50
28 Lee Bong-Ju   South Korea 2:17:56
29 Oleg Kulkov   Russia 2:18:11
30 Paulo Gomes   Portugal 2:18:15
31 Alex Malinga   Uganda 2:18:26
32 Carlos Cordero   Mexico 2:18:40
33 Ri Kum-Song   North Korea 2:19:08
34 Henryk Szost   Poland 2:19:43
35 José Amado García   Guatemala 2:20:15
36 Yonas Kifle   Eritrea 2:20:23
37 Nasar Sakar Saeed   Bahrain 2:20:24
38 José de Souza   Brazil 2:20:25
39 Kamiel Maase   Netherlands 2:20:30
40 Pak Song-Chol   North Korea 2:21:16
41 Iaroslav Musinschi   Moldova 2:21:18
42 Kim Il-Nam   North Korea 2:21:51
43 Juan Carlos Cardona   Colombia 2:21:57
44 Hendrick Ramaala   South Africa 2:22:43
45 Arjun Kumar Basnet   Nepal 2:23:09 PB
46 Hélder Ornelas   Portugal 2:23:20
47 Procopio Franco   Mexico 2:23:24
48 Nelson Cruz   Cape Verde 2:23:47
49 Roberto Echeverría   Chile 2:23:54
50 Kim Yi-Yong   South Korea 2:23:57
51 Li Zhuhong   China 2:24:08
52 Bat-Ochiryn Ser-Od   Mongolia 2:24:19
53 Norman Dlomo   South Africa 2:24:28
54 Arkadiusz Sowa   Poland 2:24:48
55 Samson Ramadhani   Tanzania 2:25:03
56 Ndabili Bashingili   Botswana 2:25:11
57 Simon Munyutu   France 2:25:50
58 Antoni Bernadó   Andorra 2:26:29
59 Wu Wen-Chien   Chinese Taipei 2:26:55
60 Lee Troop   Australia 2:27:17
61 Constantino León   Peru 2:28:04
62 Goran Stojiljković   Montenegro 2:28:14
63 Alfredo Arévalo   Guatemala 2:28:26
64 Yousf Othman Qader   Qatar 2:28:40
65 Franklin Tenorio   Ecuador 2:29:05
66 Francisco Bautista   Mexico 2:29:28
67 Roman Kejžar   Slovenia 2:29:37
68 Joachim Nshimirimana   Burundi 2:29:55
69 Seteng Ayele   Israel 2:30:07
70 Takhir Mamashayev   Kazakhstan 2:30:26
71 Abdil Ceylan   Turkey 2:31:43
72 José Ríos   Spain 2:32:35
73 Hem Bunting   Cambodia 2:33:32
74 Marcel Tschopp   Liechtenstein 2:35:06
75 Pavel Loskutov   Estonia 2:39:01
76 Atsushi Sato   Japan 2:41:08
Tesfayohannes Mesfen   Eritrea DNF After 35 km
Julio Rey   Spain DNF After 35 km
Martin Fagan   Ireland DNF After 30 km
Al Mustafa Riyadh   Bahrain DNF After 30 km
Ali Mabrouk El Zaidi   Libya DNF After 30 km
Marilson dos Santos   Brazil DNF After 30 km
Luke Kibet Bowen[a]   Kenya DNF After 25 km
Abdulhak Elgorche Zakaria   Bahrain DNF After 25 km
Luis Fonseca   Venezuela DNF After 25 km
Oleksandr Sitkovskyy   Ukraine DNF After half
Franck de Almeida   Brazil DNF After half
Andrei Gordeev   Belarus DNF After half
João N'Tyamba   Angola DNF After half
Moses Moeketsi Mosuhli   Lesotho DNF After 20 km
Getuli Bayo   Tanzania DNF After 20 km
Mubarak Hassan Shami   Qatar DNF After 15 km
Simon Tsotang Maine   Lesotho DNF After 10 km
Clement Mabothile Lebopo   Lesotho DNF After 5 km
Olexandr Kuzin   Ukraine DNF After 0 km
Mohamed Ikoki Msandeki   Tanzania DNS
Satoshi Osaki   Japan DNS
Augusto Soares   East Timor DNS

Intermediates

edit
Distance Athlete Nation Time
10 km 1. José Manuel Martínez   Spain 29:25
2. Deriba Merga   Ethiopia s.t.
3. Martin Lel   Kenya s.t.
4. Yared Asmerom   Eritrea s.t.
5. Yonas Kifle   Eritrea +0:01
20 km 1. Deriba Merga   Ethiopia 59:10
2. Yonas Kifle   Eritrea s.t.
3. Martin Lel   Kenya s.t.
4. Jaouad Gharib   Morocco s.t.
5. Samuel Kamau Wanjiru   Kenya s.t.
30 km 1. Deriba Merga   Ethiopia 1:29:14
2. Samuel Kamau Wanjiru   Kenya s.t.
3. Jaouad Gharib   Morocco +0:04
4. Martin Lel   Kenya +0:09
5. Yonas Kifle   Eritrea +0:15
40 km 1. Samuel Kamau Wanjiru   Kenya 1:59:54
2. Jaouad Gharib   Morocco +0:18
3. Deriba Merga   Ethiopia +1:57
4. Tsegay Kebede   Ethiopia +2:43
5. Martin Lel   Kenya +3:04

s.t. - same time.

References

edit
  1. ^ "Olympic Athletics Competition Schedule". IAAF. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  2. ^ a b c "Marathon, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 31 August 2020.
  3. ^ "Kenyan wins marathon gold". Associated Press via Sportsnet.ca. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  4. ^ "Entry Standards - The XXIX Olympic Games - Beijing, China - 8/24 August 2008". IAAF. Archived from the original on 13 September 2008. Retrieved 2008-08-04.
  5. ^ "Iaaf.org - Olympic Games 2008 - Results 08-17-2008 - Marathon M Final". Archived from the original on 2008-08-27. Retrieved 2008-08-24.
  6. ^ Athletics at the 2008 Beijing Summer Games: Men's Marathon. Sports Reference. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  7. ^ Luke Kibet. Association of Road Racing Statisticians. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  8. ^ Kenyan marathon star to replace injured Cheruiyot at Olympics. China Olympics (2008-08-17). Retrieved 2020-04-13.
  9. ^ Olympics Day 16 Athletics. Zimbio. Retrieved 2020-04-13.
Notes
  1. ^ Note that some sources, such as Sports Reference and the Association of Road Racing Statisticians, suggest that the Kenyan competitor Luke Kibet was Luke Kibet Chebii (born 1973) rather than Luke Kibet Bowen (born 1983).[6][7] This is incorrect, as it was the younger, reigning world champion who was called from the reserve pool to compete and was clearly visible at the race.[8][9]
edit