08 August 2021 | Athletics

Uganda closed it’s participation in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics games with a tough men’s marathon that saw it’s representatives finish out of the top 40 runners from the streets of Sapporo on Sunday.

2012 London Olympics marathon gold medalist Stephen Kiprotich couldn’t complete the energy sapping 42km - suffering a DNF after the 12km. He had been part of the leading group before he started feeling worn out.

His discomfort forced him to grab a couple of coolants on tables lined up on the roadsides but once he stopped, it got worse. He could also see the Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge and the other front runners draw further away before giving in.

Meanwhile, Compatriot Fred Musubo braved the sweltering conditions of 27C and 77% humidity to finish 44th in 2:18:29. The 2021 Source of the Nile Half Marathon winner had moved 36th by halfway of the marathon but lost places in the final half.

The 3rd Ugandan Felix Chemongesi posted 2:50:53 in 51st place after chasing down the relentless leading pack of nearly 30 athletes. Running 44th after 15km, he kept at their tail but their blistering pace drew lots of energy from him, before letting go of a couple of places.

Brazil’s Do Nascimento Daniel who fist bumped defending champion Kipchoge after 18.8km as both enjoyed the lead suffered a DNF. The 23-year-old initially seemed comfortable but after 25.8km, he fell off and even though he tried to rejoin, his charge drew the final energy from him.

By the 31st km, Kipchoge had drawn a distance of about 20m between him and his fellow Kenyans Cherono Lawrence - the 8th fastest marathon of all time and 2019 Doha bronze medalist Amos Kipruto.

Kipruto consequently dropped off just like South Africa’s Stephen Mukoka and 2019 World Champion Desisa Lelisa for DNFs as Cherono was left alone to chase Kipchoge whose gap kept growing towards the final quarter of the race.

Kipchoge - who holds the official world marathon record of 2:01:39 and has run a sub-two hour marathon - won gold in 2:08.38, becoming only the 3rd athlete to defend an Olympic marathon title, following the bare-footed Ethopian Abebe Bikila in 1960 and 1964 and the East German Waldemar Cierpinski in 1972 and 1976.

Behind him was Dutch athlete Abdi Nageeye who took silver in 2:09:58 - although he spent the last 30m looking behind him to encourage his training partner and friend Bashir Abdi of Belgium, who edged Chorono for bronze in 2:10:00 season best.

Despite the fact that Uganda didn’t collect a medal in this event, 4 medals overall, that is to say 10,000m silver and 5,000m gold from Joshua Cheptegei, Jacob Kiplimo’s 10,000m Bronze plus Peruth Chemutai’s 3000m Steeplechase gold - meant the country’s most successful Olympic Games in history.

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