by Justin Lagat
Justin Lagat wrote this about the Men’s Marathon at the 2022 World Champs with Ethiopian Tamirat Tola taking the win!
One of the reasons why a marathon could be more appealing to track running is the fact that one gets to see a glimpse of the environment and the lifestyle of a city as runners run through the course.
For the first time, the men’s marathon race took athletics fans across the world on a tour of Eugene City and especially on the green and beautiful landscapes around the University of Oregon. But, for Ethiopian fans, it was another glorious day as they bagged a second gold medal at the championships.
Tamirat Tola -who was probably taller than everyone else in the assembled elite field – waited until around the 37 km mark before surging ahead and leaving the rest of the field in the dust as he went ahead to win the men’s world marathon title in a new championship record of 2:05:36, demolishing the previous record of 2:06:54 set by Kenya’s Abel Kirui in 2009.
Shumi Dechasa of Bahrain had made a move to quicken the pace as they approached 20km, but still, about 30 runners kept together in a huge leading pack up to around the 30km point. Obviously, the qualification times set to participate in the World Championship marathon could have been one of the reasons why it was hard to separate the quality field.
For the first time, Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor stepped to the front at around 34km, and it seemed to trigger Tola, who made a bigger move, separating himself from the rest with a 2:40/km pace. The chasing group slowly turned into a single file behind him.
The gap between Tola and a chasing pack of four, Kamworor, Cameron Levins, Mosinet Geremew, and Bashir Abdi, kept stretching as he neared the finish line, where he eventually finished over one minute ahead of his next competitor.
Tola’s teammate, Geremew, finished second in 2:06:44, winning his 2nd consecutive silver medal in the world championships. Abdi came in third to win the bronze medal in 2:06:48, the best finish for Belgium in this event after the 6th place finishes by Armand Parmentier in 1983.
Cameron Levins of Canada overtook Kenya’s Geoffrey Kamworor in the last kilometer of the race to finished 4th in a new national record of 2:07:09, and the best finish ever for a Canadian in this event; after Peter Maher finished 10th in 1993.
