Marathon, Men

The Sydney marathon course was point-to-point, starting near the North Sydney Oval, and finishing in the Olympic stadium. The race started at 4 PM, but as it was early spring in Sydney on 1 October, the conditions were as cool as anything Olympic marathoners had seen since Montréal in 1976. There was no individual favorite, but African runners, especially those from Kenya and Ethiopia by now dominated international marathoning and road racing. In fact, the two nations had such deep world-class runners to choose from that even the make-up of their Olympic marathon teams was hard to pick in the months prior to the Olympics. The race itself was unspectacular. Defending champion Josia Thugwane ran, but finished 20th. Not unexpectedly, three runners from Ethiopia and Kenya mounted the podium. Ethiopia’s unheralded Gezahgne Abera won the gold medal, 20 seconds ahead of Kenya’s Erick Wainaina, who had won a bronze medal in 1996. Abera’s countryman, Tesfaye Tola, placed third. Of the 100 starters, 81 finished the race.