Ethiopia finishes 1-2 in marathon at worlds
EUGENE, Ore. — One moment, Tamirat Tola was right there with the lead pack — shoulder to shoulder and shoe to shoe.
Then, he wasn’t. He left them that quickly. No catching him, either.
Tola led a 1-2 finish by Ethiopia in the men’s marathon at the world championships on Sunday, opening a wide lead late in the race and cruising through the finish line.
The 30-year-old Tola finished in a championship-record time of 2 hours, 5 minutes, 36 seconds on a fast and flat course that featured plenty of scenic views to soak in. Teammate Mosinet Geremew held on for silver, finishing 68 seconds behind Tola. Bashir Abdi of Belgium captured bronze.
“I tried to prepare myself for a long time” for this, Tola said through an interpreter. “It was my dream.”
Even in dreams, rarely are wins by this convincing of a margin. Tola never glanced back after pulling away.
Well, maybe a few times. But no one was even close to catching up as the 2017 world silver medalist kept building and building on his lead. The previous championship record was 2:06:54, set by Abel Kirui of Kenya at the 2009 world championships in Berlin.
This is the sign of Tola’s domination: Geremew’s time eclipsed the championship record, too. It was another silver for Geremew, who finished runner-up at worlds in the heat of Doha in 2019.
“I’m very much happy because we own gold and silver,” Geremew said.
Again.
In 2019, Lelisa Desisa led the way for Ethiopia. On Sunday, though, the defending world champion tried to keep up but couldn’t maintain the pace. U.S. runner and University of Oregon standout Galen Rupp was in the lead group for much of the race before dropping back and
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