Ethiopian Tamirat Tola tames marathon course and triumphs with Olympic record | Paris 2024 Olympic Games

It was billed as the most brutal course in Olympic marathon history. And all along the route from Versailles to Paris there were broken bodies and dreams, including those of Rio and Tokyo champion Eliud Kipchoge, who dropped out after 30km, and another legend, Kenenisa Bekele, who finished a mere 39th.

That’s what makes the performance of Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, who took gold in an Olympic record 2 hours 6 minutes 26 seconds, so impressive. He made his move at 18 miles before finishing 21 seconds ahead of Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, while Kenya’s Benson Kipruto took bronze.

But 29 seconds later, Britain’s Emile Cairess ran the race of his young life, finishing fourth in a time of 2:07.29.

At one point it looked as if the 26-year-old might even win a medal, when he crested the final major hill with eight miles to go in second place. And although he dropped back after that, a late burst at Invalides gave Team GB their best marathon finish since Jon Brown finished fourth in Sydney.

Cairess is so resolutely old-fashioned that he wears a basic orange Casio watch when he runs, rather than the latest GPS. But all that winter training in the hills around his home in Bradford, followed by six weeks in Kenya and seven in the Sestiere, proved invaluable on a sweaty morning in Paris.

“It’s the best race I’ve ever had, and by quite a bit,” he said. “I didn’t really care where I finished, it was more about having my best race and feeling like I’d fulfilled my potential. I can’t control how fit the other guys are.

“I felt like 2:10 would be a medal, probably, it usually is and it’s a tough course,” he added. “But I ran the best I could and I’m really proud of myself.”

At 8am, 80 athletes lined up at the start at the Hôtel de Ville, ready to tackle a course that partly replicated the Women’s March, one of the first and most important events of the French Revolution in 1789. But their minds were mainly on the hills that awaited them, not on history.

The pain started at mile nine with a 1.25-mile hill at 4% grade. Then came another at mile 12 with a 5% grade. The one-two punch was enough to send Bekele backward, as was Kipchoge, who was now 26 seconds behind. Tola, however, looked extremely comfortable.

There was a group of 15 men in the lead group when they faced the toughest test of all, a 13.5% hill at 18 miles. Here Tola pushed on and built an 11 second lead that he never relinquished.

But as Abdi pointed out afterwards, it wasn’t just the uphill that was the problem. “This is the hardest marathon course I’ve ever run,” he said. “I actually expected the uphill to be the biggest challenge, but the downhill was the hardest. It was very steep and you have no control over your body. That was very scary, especially after 29km, we had run almost 2km downhill and it was just very challenging.”

At that point, Cairess was second, but he never felt that anyone had a chance of gold: “Tola was gone and gone,” he said. He was rightly proud, however, of the way he had taken on the challenge. “I’m pretty good on hills – I tried to keep a good pace,” he said. “Hills are a natural thing for me.”

And what about Tola? The 32-year-old Ethiopian was inspired to become a runner when he saw Haile Gebrselassie and Bekele running for their country when he was 19 or 20. But he really shouldn’t have been here, as he was only a reserve until Sisay Lemma dropped out with an injury.

“This is the best day of my life,” said Tola, who previously won a bronze medal in Rio in the 10,000 meters, as well as the 2022 World Marathon Championships and the 2023 New York Marathon. “I am very happy because this was always my goal.”

“I was fully prepared and knew I could make my dream come true. I am happy that I can do that today.”