Emile Cairess tamed one of the toughest courses in Olympic history to claim Team GB’s best men’s marathon performance in two decades.
Cairess finished fourth on Olympic debut, the same result posted by Jon Brown at the 2004 Games in Athens, as Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola took gold and an Olympic record in 2:06:26.
The 26-year-old, in only his third marathon after two appearances in London, clocked 2:07:29, finishing just 29 seconds outside the medals.
“I’m really proud of myself, I’m really happy with that,” he said. “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 someone of them would blow up and I could catch them, but it just so happened that three of them didn’t blow up.
“The course was tough, it was really hard. I’ve only done two marathons. London is pretty flat, so that was way harder, with the hills it felt much longer.
4th at the Olympic Games! Well done Emile Cairess, that was immense!
— Team GB (@TeamGB) August 10, 2024
Emile finished the men's marathon with a time of 2:07:29 👏#Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/Ypnkpvofzk
This performance adds to an impressive year for the Bradford-born runner as he claimed his first world major medal with bronze at the London marathon in a personal best time of 2:06:46 earlier this year.
Charlie Spedding was Great Britain’s last Olympic medallist, winning bronze in Los Angeles 40 years ago, and with the next Games taking place in California, Cairess would like to end that run.
“I’ll try to train more, be consistent and not put pressure on myself to do anything else,” he added.
Elsewhere, Philip Sesemann came home 46th in 2:13:08 and Mahamed Mahamed was 11 places further back in 2:15:19.
The women’s marathon gets underway tomorrow at 7:00 BST as Olympic debutants Clara Evans, Rose Harvey and Calli Hauger-Thackery take on the streets of Paris.
Sportsbeat 2024