Africa hopeful for more medals in Paris as Olympic marathon kicks off

It’s Africa’s time to shine at the Games as the weekend brings down the curtain on what many are saying are the best Games ever, with the contrast between the COVID-enforced empty stadiums in Tokyo and the jam-packed arenas of Paris particularly startling.

The two marathon races, which take place tomorrow (Saturday) and Sunday, provide every opportunity for African athletes, both those representing their countries or birth and those competing for other nations, to come to the fore. But it won’t be easy.

Most athletes facing the challenging marathon route in Paris would not seek to risk diminishing their powers by flirting with track competition prior to the marathon, but former Ethiopian super-star, Sifan Hassan, is not ‘most athletes.

Hassan, now running for the Netherlands, competed in three events in Tokyo – 1500m, 5000m and 10000m – winning bronze for the shorter race and gold in the longer two.

That remarkable and historic treble was all on the track. In Paris, Hassan again plans to race three, the 5000m (in which she won bronze), the 10000m and the marathon.

Incredibly, her 10000m final takes the pace on Friday night, just 35 hours ahead of the start of the women’s marathon.

Hassan’s contest with her former continental allies is likely to prove a highlight of the weekend. She is a formidable marathon rival, having won her only two marathons against several of her main rivals on the weekend.

After a stumble which reduced her to a walk, Hassan came back to beat Olympian contenders Mergetu Alemu ( Ethiopia) and Peres Jepchirchir (Kenya) at the 2023 London Marathon and ran won of the fastest times in history, winning in Chicago in 2:13:44 again ahead of Mergetu and American hopeful, Emily Sisson.

But as she discovered in Monday’s 5000m, the quality of Africa’s finest has risen to new levels and she will find the likes of Kenya’s Helen Obiri and London Marathon champion Jepchirchir, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa, world champion Amane Beriso and Alemu and Uganda’s Stella Chesang and Rebecca Chepegei tough nuts to crack.

Given the challenging nature of the route, raw speed may not be sufficient to prevail in Paris and athletes with skill sets which include strength and endurance could be to the fore. And make no mistake, this route is tough.

Athletes will begin a 5km climb from the crossing of the Seine over Pont Sevres 14km into the race and while the gradient is initially gentle, it becomes steeper towards the summit, where the runners will look down on the Palace of Versailles.

Adding to the ‘hill fun’ is the second climb at 28km, likely to be the game changer and to decide who will triumph in Paris and who will be thinking ahead to their next Marathon Major, where flat and fast is the name of the game.

Taking some of the teeth from the marathon route’s bite is the predicted weather forecast, which will have all the marathon participants sighing with relief.

Running the marathon in late-30 degree Celsius heat that hit the French capital last week would likely have given rise to a wave of heat injuries, but the significantly cooler weather – forecasts suggest temperatures between 15 and 20 degrees on Saturday, for the men and 17 to 22 degrees on Sunday for the women – will favour athletes in preparation, in particular for those who travelled from the winter of the southern hemisphere.

The powerful Kenyan and Ethiopian teams for the men’s marathon have had many believing the podium positions have already been marked out for the east Africans. That maybe so, and the clash between two of the all-time greats of distance running, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele and Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, who will be chasing an unprecedented third Olympic marathon gold, remains a mouth-watering prospect.

Add to the mix the likes of strong-running Tokyo winner, Benson Kipruto, and the young and fast London champion, Alexander Munyao, and the Kenyans have a look of champions about them. Between them they won three of the last six Marathon Majors and took two runner-up positions, a remarkable haul for a single country.

Watch for the man with a point to prove. 2023 New York marathon champion and gold medallist at the 2022 World Championships in Oregon, Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, was originally omitted from the team, only being invited to take the place of injured Sisay Lemma. Tola will have the mental motivation like few others.

Tanzanian, Gabriel Geay, with a 2:03:00 marathon best and Moroccans Othmane El Goumri (2:05:12) and Eritrean Okubay Tsegay(2:05:20) are also likely to contend strongly, but could this be the making of the man from Qacha’s Nek in Lesotho, Tebello Ramakongoana?

With vast experience on the hills in the ‘Mountain Kingdom’, success in hot conditions in championship racing at the highest level (he placed fourth in the World Championships in Budapest last year) and two months of solid training with his coach in warm conditions at altitude at Flagstaff Arizona, the Lesotho athlete looks good for an Olympic medal.

Just months short of this 40th birthday, South Africa’s Stephen Mokoka believes he is running at his marathon peak and also believes the hills will be an advantage. “Shorter guys generally perform best on hills”, said Mokoka recently. If that’s the case, watch our for the diminutive athlete from Pretoria, undoubtedly one of the shortest in the field.

Amongst the women, the tough route could promote Kenyan Helen Obiri’s chances. Obiri’s personal best is some ten minutes off that of Ethiopia’s Assefa at Berlin, but Obiri has yet to seek out the world’s fastest marathon courses. Further, Obiri’s half marathon best of 1:04:22 in the UAE and her two Olympic 5000m silver medals and one world championship gold over that distance, shows she does not lack speed.

But Obiri is known as a championship runner, one who comes to the fore on big occasions and when the going is tough. Her win in the 2019 World Cross Country Championships in Denmark, a course full of challenging climbs, demonstrated the strength which could take her to the top of the podium on Sunday.

Uganda’s Rebecca Cheptegai is another athlete who can expect to be to the fore on the hills. With a marathon best of 2:22: 47, set at Abu Dhabu in 2022, Cheptegai won the 2022 World Mountain Running title in Thailand, dealing with the severe hill change in that 13km race with surprising ease.

Another athlete who will embrace the hills with alacrity is South African ultra-distance super-star, Gerda Steyn. Steyn opted to race both South Africa’s leading ultras – the Two Oceans 56km in April and the 86km Comrades Marathon in June – prior to converting her training to the shorter marathon distance. Both of those ultras are known for their lung-searing hills.

Steyn will feel right at home on Sunday, while her teammate, Irvette van Zyl has also demonstrated impressive climbing ability with her recent performances at Two Oceans.

How the likes of top Kenyan and defending champion, Peres Jepchirchir, and speedy Ethiopians Assefa, Beriso and Alemu will fare only time will tell.

Many possibilities alongside major unpredictability and uncertainties mixed with women’s empowerment and the marking of a march to Versailles almost 250 years ago provide the ingredients of what promises to be a worthy climax for two of the major events of the XXXIII Olympiad in Paris.

Both marathons start at 08h00 (local time) at the City Hall and end in the Esplande des Invalides near the River Seine.

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