Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon


The men's marathon at the 2012 Olympic Games in London took place on the Olympic marathon street course on 12 August, the final day of the Games.

Summary

The course started and finished on The Mall in central London. Runners completed one short circuit of around part of the City of Westminster and then three longer circuits of around Westminster, the Victoria Embankment and the City of London. The course was designed to pass many of London's best-known landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Paul's Cathedral, the Bank of England, Leadenhall Market, the Monument, the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament.
Stephen Kiprotich from Uganda won the gold medal — the country's only medal at the 2012 Games. Abel Kirui and Wilson Kipsang, both from Kenya, took silver and bronze respectively. Twenty athletes did not finish the race, which took place on a warm and sunny day.
The race started off slowly. In the first, Brazilian runner Franck de Almeida broke away on two separate occasions, only to get swallowed up by the pack. Between 10K and 12K, Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich moved to the front in a more serious breakaway. The large pack broke up into a small chase pack of eight runners, primarily East African. With a fast , Kipsang Kiprotich opened up a gap of about 15 seconds, which lasted for the next 10 miles but never increased significantly.
The chase group shrunk to Abel Kirui and Stephen Kiprotich, with Ayele Abshero just behind. While Abshero did not gain contact, the other three formed a lead pack. The two Kenyan teammates ran together, with the Ugandan trailing slightly. By 35K, the group of three had over a minute gap on the next competitor, Marilson dos Santos. At the marker, Kiprotich touched his leg as if he were struggling and he fell back a few seconds. At the marker, Kiprotich moved past the two Kenyans. His next mile was 4:42, opening up a 17-second gap on Kirui, with Kipsang falling back. Kiprotich extended his lead by 9 seconds and picked up a Ugandan flag before crossing the finish line.
As is customary, the men's marathon medals were presented as part of the Closing Ceremony, which took place later that day, in the Olympic Stadium - the last medal presentation of the Games.

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time
DateTimeRound
Sunday, 12 August 201211:00Final

Records

, the existing world and Olympic records stood as follows.
World record2:03:38Berlin, Germany25 September 2011
Olympic record2:06:32Beijing, China24 August 2008
2012 World leading2:04:23Dubai, United Arab Emirates27 January 2012

According to IAAF statistics, the top ten fastest men's marathon times prior to the 2012 Olympics are as follows:
TimeAthleteCountryDateMarathon
2:03:38Patrick Makau Musyoki25 September 2011Berlin
2:03:42Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich30 October 2011Frankfurt
2:03:59Haile Gebrselassie28 September 2008Berlin
2:04:23Ayele Abshero27 January 2012Dubai
2:04:27Duncan Kibet5 April 2009Rotterdam
2:04:27James Kwambai5 April 2009Rotterdam
2:04:40Emmanuel Mutai17 April 2011London
2:04:48Yemane Tsegay15 April 2012Rotterdam
2:04:50Getu Feleke15 April 2012Rotterdam
2:04:50Dino Sefir27 January 2012Dubai

Result

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Stephen Kiprotich2:08:01
Abel Kirui2:08:27
Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich2:09:37
Mebrahtom Keflezighi2:11:06
Marilson Dos Santos2:11:10
Kentaro Nakamoto2:11:16
Cuthbert Nyasango2:12:08
Paulo Roberto Paula2:12:17
Henryk Szost2:12:28
10Ruggero Pertile2:12:45
11Viktor Röthlin2:12:48
12Oleksandr Sitkovskyy2:12:56
13Franck De Almeida2:13:35
14Aleksey Reunkov2:13:49
15Wirimai Juwawo2:14:09
16Michael Shelley2:14:10
17Emmanuel Kipchirchir Mutai2:14:49
18Rachid Kisri2:15:09
19Yared Asmerom2:15:24
20Dylan Wykes2:15:26
21Raúl Pacheco2:15:35
22Eric Gillis2:16:00
23Dmitriy Safronov2:16:04
24Carles Castillejo2:16:17
25Iaroslav Musinschi2:16:25
26Marius Ionescu2:16:28
27Reid Coolsaet2:16:29
28Martin Dent2:16:29
29Vitaliy Shafar2:16:36
30Lee Merrien2:17:00
31Ignacio Cáceres2:17:11
32Lee Duhaeng2:17:19
33Faustine Mussa2:17:39
34José Carlos Hernández2:17:48
35Miguel Barzola2:17:54
36Urige Buta2:17:58
37Grigoriy Andreev2:18:20
38José Amado García2:18:23
39Daniel Vargas2:18:26
40Ryo Yamamoto2:18:34
41Jesper Faurschou2:18:44
42Kári Steinn Karlsson2:18:47
43Lusapho April2:19:00
44Mike Tebulo2:19:11
45Arata Fujiwara2:19:11
46Primoz Kobe2:19:28
47Guor Marial2:19:32
48Luis Feiteira2:19:40
49Stephen Mokoka2:19:52
50Miguel Ángel Almachi2:19:53
51Ser-Od Bat-Ochir2:20:10
52Pak Song-Chol2:20:20
53Kim Kwang-Hyok2:20:20
54Dong Guojian2:20:39
55Anuradha Cooray2:20:41
56Methkal Abu Drais2:21:00
57Mark Kenneally2:21:13
58Yonas Kifle2:21:25
59Ivan Babaryka2:21:52
60Carlos Cordero2:22:08
61Scott Overall2:22:37
62Pedro Mora2:22:40
63Jeff Hunt2:22:59
64Stsiapan Rahautsou2:23:23
65César Lizano2:24:16
66Samson Ramadhani2:24:53
67Jan Kreisinger2:25:03
68Mohammed Abduh Bakhet2:25:17
69Jussi Utriainen2:26:25
70Arturo Malaquias2:26:37
71Wissem Hosni2:26:43
72Tamás Kovács2:27:48
73Jang Sinkweon2:28:20
74Toni Bernadó2:28:34
75Marcel Tschopp2:28:54
76Bekir Karayel2:29:38
77Chang Chia-Che2:29:58
78Ram Singh Yadav2:30:06
79Jean Pierre Mvuyekure2:30:19
80Konstantinos Poulios2:33:17
81Zohar Zimro2:34:59
82Jeong Jinhyeok2:38:45
83Juan Carlos Cardona2:40:13
84Augusto Soares2:45:09
85Tsepo Ramonene2:55:54
Li Zicheng
Ilunga Mande Zatara
Darko Zivanovic
Gunther Weidlinger
Abraham Kiprotich
Patrick Tambwe
Valerijs Zolnerovics
Ali Mabrouk El Zaidi
Ryan Hall
Abdihakem Abdirahman
Getu Feleke
Dino Sefir
Samuel Tsegay
Ayele Abshero
Tayeb Filali
Rui Pedro Silva
Coolboy Ngamole
Abderrahime Bouramdane
Roman Prodius
Abdellatif Meftah