Eliud Kipchoge claims Olympic marathon title in Rio

Eliud Kipchoge dominated the men’s marathon on Sunday to claim the final athletics gold medal of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

On a wet and humid morning, Kenya’s two-time London Marathon winner pulled away over the last 10km to run 2:08:44 and beat Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa and USA’s Galen Rupp. It might have been his slowest ever winning time by over three minutes, but Kipchoge judged the race to perfection, clocking splits of 65:55 and 62:49 to leave his rivals trailing in his wake.

“This is history, the first time the women and the men win and it is the best moment of my life,” said Kipchoge, with his fellow Kenyan Jemima Sumgong having secured success in the women’s race a week earlier.

“It was a championship and it was a bit slow so I decided to take over. Maybe it was the rain, maybe not. Everyone wants a medal. I was coming here for gold.”

When it comes to dominance, times and now global medals, Kipchoge is by far the greatest marathon runner of the current generation as the 31-year-old, who just missed the world record with his winning time of 2:03:05 in London in April, has claimed victory at seven of his eight marathons since his debut in Hamburg in 2013. He also adds Rio marathon gold to his two Olympic medals won on the track – 5000m silver in 2008 and bronze in 2004 – to complete the set.

His winning margin in Rio was 70 seconds, with Rupp, who had also placed fifth in the 10,000m, a further 11 seconds back. On his approach to the finish line, Lilesa had raised his arms and crossed …

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