PARIS: Regarded as the greatest marathon runner of all time, Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge met his match today as he failed to finish the exceptionally hilly Paris Olympics course, dashing his hopes of a historic third straight gold.
The 39-year-old Kipchoge started among the frontrunners but faded before the 20km mark, clutching his side as challengers streamed ahead of him. After the race he said back pain had overwhelmed him and made him stop.
Ethiopia's Tamirat Tola took the gold, finishing first by a wide margin, while Belgium's Bashir Abdi won silver and Benson Kipruto secured Kenya a spot on the podium by earning bronze.
In typical sanguine fashion, Kipchoge downplayed the defeat - the first time he has not finished a race - and did not give any hints as to his widely-expected retirement from the sport.
"Today is a tough day in my office. As always, you can't predict what will happen," he told reporters with a smile, adding that he felt supported by the crowds even after slowing to a walk in what he described as his worst ever race.
"I walked for two kilometres and I had more than 300 people on my side walking together," he said.
Passing runners, too, were encouraging him to keep pushing on, he said. "I could feel the love and the respect, actually."
After stopping Kipchoge took off his running shoes and gave them to a fan before climbing into an official vehicle.
The Kenyan has four of the 10 fastest marathon times in history, but his personal best of 2:01:09 was nearly two years ago at the 2022 Berlin marathon.
He has won that marathon a record five times and the London marathon four times, but has started to show signs of strain in more recent major races, finishing 10th at the Tokyo marathon in March where compatriot Benson Kipruto won.
"I don't know what my future holds," Kipchoge told reporters after today's race. "I don't want to make any comment. I'm still trying to run some marathons."
Kipchoge is the only person to cover the 42.2km marathon distance in less than two hours though the record, set in 2019, was unofficial as he had teams of pacers and it was not run in open competition.
If his fifth Olympics in Paris ends up being his last it would complete a circle for Kipchoge, who won his first international title in Paris at the 2003 World Championships when he was still focused on the 5,000 metres.
He won bronze in the 5,000 at the 2004 Olympics, upgrading to silver in 2008, before switching to compete over the marathon distance he would grow to dominate.
Pushed on his plans after today's setback, Kipchoge stopped short of saying this would be his last marathon.
"I don't want to talk about what will happen tomorrow," he said. "You fall down today, but you wake up tomorrow and do other things." - REUTERS