Sapporo (Japan) (AFP)
Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, five years after Rio, again won the Olympic Games marathon on Sunday in Sapporo.
In 2 h 08 min 38, he beat the Dutchman Abdi Nageeye (2:09:58) and the Belgian Bashir Abdi (2h10: 00).
Frenchman Nicolas Navarro made a huge comeback to finish 12th (2:12:50).
Morhad Amdouni, with the lead until the 30th kilometer, finished 17th (2:14:33).
At 36, Kipchoge has confirmed his status as the greatest marathoner in history, while he also holds the world record of 42.195 km, set in 2 h 01 min 39 sec in Berlin in 2018.
He becomes the third runner to win the Olympic marathon for the second time in a row after Ethiopian Abebe Bikila (1960 and 1964) and East German Waldemar Cierpinski (1976 and 1980).
This is his 4th Olympic medal in four participations after bronze in the 5,000m in 2004 and silver over the same distance in 2008.
In difficult conditions for a long-lasting race (around 27 degrees and 80% humidity), Kipchoge left alone at the 30th kilometer, and no one could deny him the victory.
The leading peloton was still made up of around thirty riders at the halfway point (1:05:13), but was already deprived of several favorites in a race marked by many retirements.
The Ethiopian Shura Kitata dropped the case after ten kilometers: it was he who won the London marathon in 2020, for the first defeat of Kipchoge (8th) on the queen distance since 2013.
In total Kipchoge has only been beaten twice in fifteen marathons spread over eight years.
He had run an unofficial marathon in less than two hours in October 2019.
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