Ethiopia’s Tiki Gelana held off the Kenyan Priscah Jeptoo to win gold in a soggy Olympic women’s\u00a0marathon\u00a0on Sunday.<\/p>\n
Gelana clocked 2hr 23min 7sec, an Olympic record time, finishing five seconds ahead of Jeptoo. The Russian Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova won bronze with the pre-race favourite Mary Keitany having to settle for fourth. It was Gelana’s major championship.<\/p>\n
Mara Yamauchi’s Olympic\u00a0marathon\u00a0lasted less than 10 kilometres on the rainy streets of London.<\/p>\n
A week after Paula Radcliffe withdrew from London 2012 with a foot problem, an injured Yamauchi stopped in tears on the side of the road around 9.4km into the race as she decided she could go no further.<\/p>\n
The 38-year-old Oxford athlete had been hampered by a bruised heel in the buildup to the Games and, although determined to get to the start line, was clearly not fit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\u00a0Surging into the lead in the last mile and a half and running the second half of the race more than three minutes faster than the first, Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia won the women\u2019s Olympic marathon on Sunday in 2 hours 23 minutes 7 seconds, a record for the Summer Games<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya took second in 2:23:12 on a cool, rainy day on a loop course that passed many of London\u2019s iconic landmarks. Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova of Russia made a late charge and finished third in a personal best of 2:23:29. She had finished fourth in the 3,000-meter steeplechase at the 2008 Beijing Games.<\/p>\n
The prerace favorite, Mary Keitany of Kenya, who won the London Marathon in April, could not hold the pace at the end and finished fourth in 2:23:56. Surprisingly, a Kenyan woman still has not won an Olympic marathon since the event was first held in 1984.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Kenya\u2019s East African rival, Ethiopia, has now twice won the Olympic marathon. Fatuma Roba took first at the 1996 Atlanta Games. At the London Games, Ethiopia has won both women\u2019s distance events, with Tirunesh Dibaba taking gold in the 10,000.<\/p>\n
Gelana, 24, had won the Rotterdam Marathon earlier this year in 2:18:58, an Ethiopian record. On Sunday, she bested the Olympic record of 2:23:14, set by Naoko Takahashi of Japan at the 2000 Sydney Games. Gelana ran the first half Sunday in 1:13:13 and the second half in 1:09:54.<\/p>\n
It was a frustrating day for the three American entrants. Shalane Flanagan and\u00a0Kara Goucher<\/a>\u00a0went to the lead early but faded. Flanagan finished 10th in 2:25:51, while Goucher was 11th in 2:26:07. Desiree Davila, who had been battling a hip injury, dropped out after 2.2 miles.<\/p>\n Sunday\u2019s 26.2 mile race was run on a course with one loop of 2.2 miles and three loops of eight miles. A heavy downpour dropped the temperature to 57 degrees, a nearly ideal temperature, but steady rain continued as the race began. The water began to puddle in places, and the runners splashed as they struck the ground.<\/p>\n