The men's

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

event at the

2020 Summer Olympics The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the host city during the ...

started at 07:00 on 8 August 2021 in

Sapporo ( ain, サッ・ポロ・ペッ, Satporopet, lit=Dry, Great River) is a city in Japan. It is the largest city north of Tokyo and the largest city on Hokkaido, the northernmost main island of the country. It ranks as the fifth most populous city ...

, Japan. 106 athletes from 46 nations competed. The previous Olympic champion, Kenyan

Eliud Kipchoge Eliud Kipchoge ( ; born 5 November 1984) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in the marathon and formerly specialized at the 5000 metre distance. Widely regarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time, he is the 2016 and 2020 ...

, successfully defended his title, with Dutch and Belgian athletes

Abdi Nageeye Abdi Nageeye (born 2 March 1989) is a Somali-Dutch long-distance runner from the Netherlands. He won the silver medal in the marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Nageeye placed third at the 2022 New York City Marathon. He is the Dutch nationa ...

and

Bashir Abdi Bashir Abdi (born 10 February 1989) is a Somali-born Belgian athlete who specializes in long-distance running. He won bronze medals in the marathon at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 World Championships. In doing so, Abdi became both the fir ...

gaining silver and bronze, respectively. Kipchoge was the third man to repeat as Olympic marathon champion, after

Abebe Bikila ''Shambel'' Abebe Bikila ( am, ሻምበል አበበ ቢቂላ; August 7, 1932 – October 25, 1973) was an Ethiopian marathon runner who was a back-to-back Olympic marathon champion. He is the first Ethiopian Olympic gold medalist, winnin ...

and

Waldemar Cierpinski Waldemar Cierpinski (born 3 August 1950) is a former East German athlete and two time Olympic Champion in the marathon. He lives in Halle an der Saale. Career He was born to Polish parents who had moved to Germany in 1945, in Neug ...

. The Netherlands and Belgium earned their first men's marathon medals since 1980 and 1976, respectively. The race was moved north, from

Tokyo Tokyo (; ja, 東京, , ), officially the Tokyo Metropolis ( ja, 東京都, label=none, ), is the capital and largest city of Japan. Formerly known as Edo, its metropolitan area () is the most populous in the world, with an estimated 37.468 ...

to Sapporo because the latter is on average cooler in August, as decided in 2019 by the

IOC The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...

. Sapporo recorded at 07:00 when the race started, not much different from Tokyo The gifts were presented by David Katz,

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

; World Athletics Competition Commission Member.

Summary

Before the start of the race, four athletes were introduced and took their positions on the start line, host nation Japanese champion

Suguru Osako is a Japanese long-distance runner. He won the 10,000 metres gold medal at the 2011 Summer Universiade in Shenzhen and holds the Asian junior record for the half marathon. He held the Japanese National Record for the marathon of 2:05:29 set at th ...

, Rio bronze medalist

Galen Rupp Galen Rupp (born May 8, 1986) is an American long-distance runner. He competed in the Summer Olympics in 2008 in Beijing, 2012 in London, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro and 2021 in Tokyo. He won the silver medal in the men's 10,000-meter run in London ...

, 2019 World Champion

Lelisa Desisa Lelisa Desisa Benti (born 14 January 1990) is an Ethiopian long-distance runner who specialises in road running competitions. Desisa gained his first international medal at the 2009 African Junior Athletics Championships, where he took the 10,000 ...

and Rio gold medalist, world record holder

, honored with the applause of his competitors. 102 others then toed the line with them. While some fell off the back from the start, the lead group filled the width of the street. About two kilometres into the race, the first leader, Jeison Suárez, began to assert himself. Suárez stayed on the front for the next 22 kilometres, joined by a succession of other frontrunners; Yang Shaohui,

Amanal Petros Amanal Petros (born 17 May 1995) is a German long-distance runner and , the national record holder in the marathon with a time of 2:06:27h, set at the 2021 Valencia Marathon. Career He won the bronze medal in the men's 5000 metres at the 20 ...

Mohamed Reda El Aaraby Mohamed Reda El Aaraby (born 12 November 1989) is a Moroccan long-distance runner who specializes in the marathon. In 2019, he competed in the men's marathon at the 2019 World Athletics Championships held in Doha, Qatar. He did not finish his ...

, Stephen Mokoka and Daniel Ferreira do Nascimento all under the watchful eye of Kipchoge, his Kenyan teammates

Lawrence Cherono Lawrence Cherono (born August 7, 1988) is a Kenyan long-distance runner. He is currently the 8th fastest marathon performer of all time with his 2:03:04 clocking at the 2020 Valencia Marathon. He clocked 2:04:06 to win the Amsterdam Marathon on ...

and Amos Kipruto, Desisa and Rupp. A pack of over fifty at 5,000 metres dwindled to about twenty by the half way mark as other notable runners fell off the back, with many dropping out. Going in to the 25,000 meter mark, Kipchoge upped the pace. The pack became a string of runners trying to chase, led by the Kenyans and Rupp. At 28,000 metres Kipchoge attempted a break but was caught shortly after. Just after the 30,000 meter mark, he attempted another break, this time staying well ahead of the other competitors, eventually building a 27 second lead over the chase pack that had dwindled to Cherono,

Ayad Lamdassem Ayad Lamdassem (born October 11, 1981) is a Moroccan-born long distance runner who competes for Spain internationally. He has represented Spain twice in the 10,000 metres at the Summer Olympics (2008 and 2012) as well as the European Athletics ...

and

with

hanging on a few seconds later. With Cherono at the point over the next 5,000 metres, the remaining foursome congealed into a pack, each trying to figure a tactic to take silver as Kipchoge pulled away into the distance. Coming from 30 seconds back of the group, Osako was rapidly making up ground. With 1,000 metres to go, Cherono tried to make a break, but Nageeye held onto his back. Cherono tried to break again, this time Lamdassem was dropped. Approaching the finish line Nageeye, sensing Cherono was spent, accelerated and waved to Abdi to follow him. Abdi responded, with Nageeye getting silver and Abdi bronze two seconds up on Cherono. Kipchoge won by 1:20, greater than his Rio margin of victory. Very tough weather conditions forced many runners to retire. These included the 2012 champion

Stephen Kiprotich Stephen Kiprotich ("KIP-roh-tich", born 27 February 1989) is a Ugandan long-distance runner. He is an Olympic marathon champion, having won the gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics. Kiprotich also won a gold at the 2013 World Championships in ...

and all three Ethiopian runners, among them the current World champion

. Only 76 out of 106 athletes finished. The last one was Iván Zarco from Honduras, who was essentially running alone for the whole race and finished 36 minutes behind the winner. Most of the race participants, including Nageeye and Bashir, finished with the season best results, which mainly reflected the lack of competitions due to the COVID-19 limitations. Kipchoge became the third man to successfully defend the Olympic Marathon title, after

and

Background

This was the 29th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Five of the top 10 runners from Rio 2016 returned: gold medalist

of Kenya, bronze medalist

of the United States, fifth-place finisher Alphonce Simbu of Tanzania, seventh-place finisher Tadesse Abraham of Switzerland, and ninth-place finisher

Callum Hawkins Callum Robert Hawkins (born 22 June 1992) is a British distance runner, who competed in the marathon at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is the Scottish record holder in the marathon and the British all-time number three at that distance behind Mo F ...

of Great Britain. No nations made their men's marathon debut in Tokyo. The United States made its 28th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the boycotted 1980 Games.

Qualification

Approximately 80 athletes were initially expected to compete (target number of 80) by entry time or ranking; the final number was 110 runners qualified by time, with NOCs universality places yet to enter athletes in addition to the 110 qualifying through time, much more than the expected due to the postponed Games (4 universality places were used in 2016). The qualification period for the entry standard (2:11:30) was from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2021, with a maximum quota of 3 athletes per National Olympic Committee. Performances achieved between 6 April 2020 and 30 November 2020 were not considered in the qualification system. A

National Olympic Committee A National Olympic Committee (NOC) is a national constituent of the worldwide Olympic movement. Subject to the controls of the International Olympic Committee, NOCs are responsible for organizing their people's participation in the Olympic Games ...

(NOC) could enter up to 3 qualified athletes in the men's marathon if all athletes meet the entry standard or qualify by ranking during the qualifying period. (The limit of 3 has been in place since the 1930 Olympic Congress.) The qualifying standard is 2:11:30. This standard was "set for the sole purpose of qualifying athletes with exceptional performances unable to qualify through the

IAAF World Rankings The World Athletics Rankings are an individual athlete ranking system for the sport of athletics, managed by World Athletics. It is used to establish the number one athlete within an athletics event and to partially determine qualification into t ...

pathway." Runners in the top 10 at the 2019 world championship, the top 5 at any IAAF Gold Label marathon, and the top 10 at the Marathon Major Series were deemed to have met the qualifying standard, regardless of actual time. The world rankings, based on the average of the best five results for the athlete over the qualifying period and weighted by the importance of the meet, will then be used to qualify athletes until the cap of 80 is reached. More than 80 athletes (after application of the 3 per NOC rule) have met the qualifying standard. To be a qualifying performance, the course had to have been certified in the last five years by a Grade A or Grade B road course measurer. In order to be eligible for the qualifying standard time, the elevation decrease could not be more than 1 metre per kilometre. For world rankings, the elevation decrease could exceed that rate, but a correction would be made to the score. The qualifying period was originally from 1 January 2019 to 31 May 2020. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the period was suspended from 6 April 2020 to 30 November 2020, with the end date extended to 31 May 2021. The world rankings period start date was also changed from 1 January 2019 to 1 December 2018. The qualifying time standards could be obtained in various meets during the given period that have the approval of the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. The most recent Area Championships may be counted in the ranking, even if not during the qualifying period. In July 2020, World Athletics announced that the suspension period would be lifted for the road events (marathons and race walks) on 1 September 2020. NOCs can also use their universality place—each NOC can enter one male athlete regardless of time if they had no male athletes meeting the entry standard for an athletics event—in the marathon. Qualification ended on 31 May 2021. Both marathons had a target number of 80 athletes, but a larger number of athletes have fulfilled the qualifying criteria and will compete in

, the venue of the Olympic road events. In the men's field, 106 athletes have qualified (with a maximum of 3 per nation).

Competition format and course

As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The marathon distance of 42.195 km was run over a course that starts with two laps around

Odori Park is a park located in the heart of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. means "large street" in Japanese. It stretches east to west through Nishi 1 chōme, Ōdōri to Nishi 12 chōme, Ōdōri ("Nishi" means west, and "chōme" is a block in Japanese), and d ...

. The route then includes a large loop (about half the marathon's length) through the streets of

, passing by

Nakajima Park is a city park in Chūō-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan. The park has a lake, two streams, a museum, a concert hall, an observatory, a historical building housing a tea shop, and several lawns and forests. At the south end, there are two shrines. ...

Sapporo TV Tower The , built in 1957, is a TV tower with an observation deck at a height of 90.38 metres. Located on the ground of Odori Park, in the northern city of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, the tower is open to tourists. Tourists can view Sapporo and Odori Park ...

, and

Hokkaido University , or , is a Japanese national university in Sapporo, Hokkaido. It was the fifth Imperial University in Japan, which were established to be the nation's finest institutions of higher education or research. Hokkaido University is considered ...

, and crossing the

Toyohira River The is a river in Hokkaidō prefecture, Japan. It is 72.5 km in length and has drainage area of 894.7 km². It is a tributary of the Ishikari River. It supplies water to Sapporo city, the capital of Hokkaidō built on the alluvial fan ...

twice. The course then takes two trips around a smaller (approximately 10 kilometres) section of the large loop. The finish line is back at Odori Park.

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world, Olympic, and area records were as follows. * — Boston Marathon, aided road course per IAAF rule 260.28 No new records were established during the competition.

Schedule

All times are

Japan Standard Time , or , is the standard time zone in Japan, 9 hours ahead of UTC ( UTC+09:00). Japan does not observe daylight saving time, though its introduction has been debated on several occasions. During World War II, the time zone was often referred to a ...

(

UTC+9 UTC+09:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +09:00. During the Japanese occupations of British Borneo, Burma, Hong Kong, Dutch East Indies, Malaya, Philippines, Singapore, and French Indochina, it was used as a common time with ...

) The men's marathon took place on a single day.

Results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2020 Summer Olympics - Men's marathon Men's marathon Marathons at the Olympics

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...

Men's marathons Men's events at the 2020 Summer Olympics