Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya gave his flawless marathon career yet another boost, by winning the Olympic men’s marathon, in 2 hours 8 minutes 44 seconds; on Sunday.
Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa bagged the Silver and Galen Rupp of the United States took the Bronze. Jared Ward, also from the U.S ended in sixth place in 2:11:30
Meb Keflezighi of the U.S. was 33rd in 2:16:46.
Kipchoge and Lilesa dropped Rupp at the 35-kilometer mark and then Kipchoge put on a patented surge himself and won by a margin of 1 minute 10 seconds.
Heading into Rio, the 31-year-old Kipchoge had lost just once in seven career marathons, at Berlin in 2013. Only three years ago, he moved up to the marathon distance. He came to prominence in 2003 by winning the junior race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships, setting a world junior record of over 5000m on the track, becoming world champion at the 2003 World Championships in athletics.