Marathon, Men

The Athina men’s marathon was contested on the hottest day ever for an Olympic marathon, with the temperature just above 30° C. (86° F.). There was again no definite favorite, and the field of 101 runners set a slow pace, as the runners were concerned about the heat. At the 20 km. mark, Brazil’s Vanderlei de Lima opened up a small lead. By 30 km. he had pulled ahead by almost 50 seconds, but gradually the pursuers started to reel him in a bit, chopping 20 seconds off that lead over the next five kilometers. Unfortunately, at the 36 km. mark, a fan ran onto the course and ran directly at de Lima, pushing him briefly off the course. De Lima saw his stride broken, and he was unable to continue at the same pace. At 39 km. he was caught by Italy’s Stefano Baldini, who went into the lead and held on to win gold medal. The United States’ Meb Keflezighi, and Eritrean immigrant, also passed de Lima, and he took the silver medal, with de Lima holding on to win a bronze.

It turned out that the fan who had assaulted de Lima was a deranged former Irish priest, who had a history of these acts. He had once walked out onto the track at a Formula One race, fortunately not being harmed and not causing an accident, or injury to any drivers. De Lima protested the result, appealing that he should have been declared the winner, and that he would have won the race if not for the disturbance. That is unlikely, as Baldini and Keflezighi were closing on him at the time of incident, and he finished almost 1½ minutes behind Baldini, and 42 seconds behind Keflezighi, only holding off the fourth-place finisher, Britain’s Jon Brown, by 15 seconds. De Lima’s protest was disallowed. For Brown, it was an unfortunate second consecutive fourth place finish in the Olympic marathon.