Marathon legend Eliud Kipchoge was forced to pull out of the Olympic race and suffered the ignominy of being forced to take a taxi ride to the finish line.
The 39-year-old had been targeting an unprecedented third straight Olympic title but the veteran looked uncomfortable throughout the early stages of the race and never settled into his customary rhythm.
Kipchoge made it to the 31-kilometer mark before eventually calling it quits and allowing last-placed Ser-Od Bat-Ochir to overtake him.
At that point, the Kenyan handed his shoes and socks to two lucky supporters before disappearing into a vehicle which drove him to the finish line.
After the race, a visibly emotional Kipchoge said: ‘It is a difficult time for me. This is my worst marathon. I have never done a DNF (did not finish). That’s life.
‘Like a boxer, I have been knocked down, I have won, I have come second, eighth, 10th, fifth – now I did not finish. That’s life.’
On his future, the Kenyan said: ‘I don’t know what to do next. I need to go back [home], sit down, and try to figure out my 21 years of running at a high level. I need to evolve and feature in other things.’
Great Britain’s Emile Cairess, meanwhile, finished strongly to claim an impressive fourth place in a race won by Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola in an Olympic record.
Tola took the title in a time of two hours six minutes and 26 seconds, winning his country’s first gold of the Games.
Belgian Bashir Abdi took the silver in 2:06.47 with the bronze going to Kenyan Benson Kipruto in 2:07.00.
Cairess, who qualified for the Paris Olympics after finishing third in the London Marathon in April, took fourth in 2:07.29.
Tola, a bronze medallist in the 10,000m at Rio 2016, said: ‘I am happy because I fulfilled my goal. I prepared well. I trained hard so I could win. In my life, this is my great achievement.’
Tola, who won the New York City marathon in a course record time last year, was not originally in the Ethiopian Olympic squad and was only drafted in when Sisay Lemma pulled out due to a hamstring injury.
Tola added: ‘I was fully prepared and knew I could fulfil my dream. I am happy to do that. This is the Olympics and it is not easy to win the Olympic Games, not at all. I am very proud, very happy.’
Cairess sat in second spot after 30km before dropping back but he overtook Ethiopia’s Deresa Geleta and Akira Akasaki to finish fourth.
‘I’m really proud of myself,’ Cairess said. ‘I didn’t really care where I came, it was more about doing my best race and feeling like I’ve fulfilled my potential. I can’t control how fit all the other guys are.
‘I feel like I ran the best I could have. In both London marathons I ran, I didn’t finish the best but this year I was a bit more conservative. This is the first time I’ve run a real race in the last 2km so I wanted to prove I could finish it off.
‘It is the best run I’ve had by a decent bit. I just wanted to give myself a chance. That was my thinking, just try to run as fast as I could until the end.
‘Maybe one of them would blow up and I could catch them, but it just so happened that three of them didn’t blow up.’
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