© Copyright – 2024 – Athletics Illustrated
“The best subjects are always people, who never fail to amaze me by their unpredictability.”
— Ronnie James Dio
Conditions
Saturday and Sunday mornings the men’s and women’s marathon races took place at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. Temperatures were warm as expected and some climbs and descents were bigger and steeper than any other previous global championships. Leading up to the Paris Olympic marathon, prognosticators were calling for slow times and cramping quads late in the race. No such thing happened.
Not only did the unprecedented climbing and descending not seem to be a factor both the men’s and women’s Olympic records were broken. In the case of Dutchwoman Sifan Hassan, she sprinted the final kilometre for the win. Her third event in six days and her second event in two days. She won bronze in both the 5000m and 10,000m races.
The hills included one called The Wall, with a 14 per cent grade in parts of it. The Wall comes at 28 kilometres into the race. The peaks sit at 183m and 172m of elevation, after starting at approximately 35m.
The course gains 438m and descends nearly as much, 436m to the finish.
Tamirat Tola
The men’s race was won by last-minute replacement Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia. The 33-year-old finished in the time of 2:06:26. The performance was eight seconds faster than Sammy Wanjiru of Kenya, who won the 2008 Beijing event. Hassan clocked a 2:22:55 after the sprint finish against the current world record holder Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia. She finished in 2:22:58.
Tola came in with a bronze medal in the 10,000m from the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Also, he earned a 2022 Eugene World Athletics Championship marathon title. Tola has run the marathon as fast as 2:03:39.
On July 29, Athletics Illustrated predicted the most optimistic paces of 3:00 for the men and 3:20 for the women. This would result in 2:06 and 2:20, respectively at best. To see it happen by a last-minute replacement and a Hassan who was to race the 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m was a surprise. Hassan did not bother with the 1500m, but did win bronze in the 5000m and 10,000m.
