The women's

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of kilometres ( 26 mi 385 yd), 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 ...

event at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

took place on 14 August on the Sambadrome.

Summary

At 9:30 in the morning, the race started with temperatures around . The pack stayed bunched, with Mare Dibaba, Visiline Jepkesho, Rose Chelimo, Volha Mazuronak and Tirfi Tsegaye each taking their turns in the spotlight. The racing got serious, the pack was down to seven at 30 kilometres with American Desiree Linden the closest pursuer but unable to get back with the group. Shalane Flanagan was consistently toward the back of the group, then she began to fall off. As Flanagan and Mazuronak struggled with the group, the remaining five African runners surged, the gap grew. Chelimo was the next to drop off the group. Eunice Kirwa never held the lead and Jemima Sumgong only asserted herself in the last 5 kilometers. When she did the pack strung out to a straight line, former race walker Mazuronak and Tsegaye falling off the back. At a water station, Dibaba was the last to fall off, and then there were two.

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

bronze medalist and Nagoya Champion Kirwa shadowing London Champion Sumgong until the final kilometer. Then Sumgong expanded the gap in the long final straight into the finish. By the finish of the race, the temperature had risen to . Three sets of twins finished the marathon; two of the Luik triplets from Estonia, the Hahner twins from Germany and the Kim sisters from North Korea. The medals were presented by

Nawal El Moutawakel Nawal El Moutawakel ( Amazigh: ⵏⴰⵡⴰⵍ ⵍⵎⵓⵜⴰⵡⴰⵇⵇⵍ ; ; born 15 April 1962) is a Moroccan former hurdler, who won the inaugural women's 400 metres hurdles event at the 1984 Summer Olympics, and is the first Moroccan, ...

, IOC

member Member may refer to: * Military jury, referred to as "Members" in military jargon * Element (mathematics), an object that belongs to a mathematical set * In object-oriented programming, a member of a class ** Field (computer science), entries in ...

, Morocco and Hiroshi Yokokawa, Council Member of the

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

Records

, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:

Schedule

All times are

Brasília Time Time in Brazil is calculated using standard time, and the country (including its offshore islands) is divided into four standard time zones: Fernando de Noronha time (UTC−02:00), Brasília time (UTC−03:00), Amazon time (UTC−04:00), and Acr ...

( UTC−3).

Results

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Athletics at the 2016 Summer Olympics - Women's Marathon Women's marathon Marathons at the Olympics

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games, also known as the Summer Olympics or the Games of the Olympiad, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inaugural Games took place in 1896 in Athens, then part of the King ...

2016 in women's athletics Women's events at the 2016 Summer Olympics