2012 London Olympic Games Women's Marathon - Post Race Coverage

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2012 London Olympic Games Women's Marathon - Post Race Coverage
by John Elliott

The Field - Fastest Ever
The 2012 Olympic Women's Marathon featured the deepest and fastest field ever assembled; the course was flat and weather expected to be moderate; and in the field were a number of women who like to run fast and would not lead an overcautious first half. With all of these factors in place, the race was expected to produce fast times and favor the Kenyans and Ethiopians who had all posted sub-2:20 finishes in their recent races. A few other women were slated as ones to watch: as Americans, we hoped that Shalane Flanagan - relatively untried at the marathon - could produce a breakout race; Liliya Shobukhova had been injured of late, but if in perfect form could compete with the best; and Kim Smith had shown her bravery at the 2011 Boston Marathon before she had to pull out with an injury, but she had followed that up by running the fastest half marathons ever run in North America.

photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun

Withdrawals and Injury
In the days leading to the race, there were some announcements of substitutions and injuries. Paula Radcliffe, the world record holder and UK's best chance at a medal chose not to start the race and her spot was taken by Freya Murray. It was first indicated that Desiree Davila, one of the Americans, would not start because of injuries - but after a series of "she will," "she won't," "she will," start announcements; Davila did start - presumably recognizing that there was no one to take her place and that there would be no harm to starting and dropping out but still gaining the prestige and bonus associated with being an Olympian.

A Rainy Day
The day of the race was met by thunderstorms and driving rain - not ideal for the runners - but the reasonable temperature in the 60s balanced out the annoyance of the rain.

An Honest Pace
At the first 5K split, the race was clocked at 17:20 - a 2:26:17 finish if the time were extended out. The race was initially led and paced by the two Americans Kara Goucher and Shalane Flanagan. Of the 118 starters, 67 runners were in the group running on target for a 2:26:17 finish. To put the speed in perspective, only 37 of the athletes had ever run faster than 2:26:17; and 28 had a recent (qualifying) time that was better than that mark - so the pace was honest and at least half of the initial pack should not be able to continue at that pace let alone continue at the faster pace for the second half that would be expected.

photo: Sharon Ekstrom/MarathonGuide.com

Through the first half marathon, the women kept a remarkably even pace - crossing the halfway point in 1:13:13, an extrapolated finish time of 2:26:26, nearly the same as the extended time from the 5K split. Through the first half, the race was led by a number of different women, but not by the favorites. The race was first led by the Americans, for a short while by two Japanese runners, and for a significant stretch by Valeria Straneo of Italy. At the halfway mark, the front group was down to 25 runners - approximately the number who could legitimately keep the pace. Liliya Shobukhova - the woman with the fastest qualifying time in the race - was the one notable disappointment. Already 24 seconds back at the halfway mark, Shobukhova would soon drop out.

The Real Race Begins
After the halfway mark, the race would begin in earnest. Edna Kiplagat and Mary Keitany - two Kenyans who were favorites and were clearly working together as they would alternately collect each other's water bottles at the fluid stations - took to the lead and began to push the pace.

photo: Sharon Ekstrom/MarathonGuide.com

With the surge, the field broke apart and six women set a good gap on the the others. The six women consisted of the fastest qualifiers in the field (excluding Shobukhova) and were all Kenyan or Ethiopian: Mary Keitany, Edna Kiplagat and Priscah Jeptoo of Kenya; and Mare Dibaba, Tiki Gelana and Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia. The race seemed certain to be a competition solely between the two East African countries - and all pundits would expect Mary Keitany, the world record holder at the Half Marathon and the defending champion of the London Marathon to have the edge. Immediately following the initial surge, two women - Shalane Flanagan and Xiaolin Zhu of China - were caught in the middle behnd the group of six leaders and ahead of the rest - seemingly unsure of whether to try or able to bridge the gap to the leaders; then nearly catching the leaders before falling back again.

photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun

A couple of mishaps and near falls seemed possibly to shake the confidence of two of the leaders: Tiki Gelana fell at 15 miles trying to reach her water bottle and Edna Kiplagat nearly tripped on a bottle that another runner had dropped just after; but both recovered and continued on.

From the front group, Mergia was the first to fall back and she faded quickly and hard, losing nearly 40 seconds from the leaders in just 3K. Seemingly out of nowhere, Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova of Russia - a woman with a 2:25:01 PB and ranked 20th in the field by qualifying time - overcame a ten second deficit to catch the leaders and run with the front pack. The race, which had seemed destined to be an East African sweep, was now a contest between three Kenyans, two Ethiopians and one Russian.

photo: Victah Sailer/PhotoRun

The Finish
By 35K, Petrova had taken to the lead; and Edna Kiplagat fell back from the leaders, then regained the pack, but ultimately fell off. Four runners remained, all strong - but we still believed that it must be Mary Keitany with her 2:18:37 PB who would prevail. With one mile remaining, Tiki Gelana put in a surge and we learned that we were wrong about Keitany who could not hold the faster pace and fell way back. Jeptoo held near Gelana for a short while, but ultimately fell short; and Petrova continued on strong behind the two who were the fastest.

With an honest pace for the first half and a strong second half, the first two runners both crossed the finish line faster than the previous Olympic Record time (2:23:14). Tiki Gelana of Ethiopia took the Gold medal in 2:23:07 and became the new Olympic Record Holder. Priscah Jeptoo took the Silver in 2:23:12, and Tatyana Petrova bettered her personal best by more than 1-1/2 minutes to claim the Bronze medal in 2:23:29.

Top Finishers:
1. Tiki Gelana 2:23:07
2. Priscah Jeptoo 2:23:12
3. Tatyana Petrova 2:23:29
4. Mary Keitany 2:23:56
5. Tetyana Gamera-Shmyrko 2:24:32
6. Xiaolin Zhu 2:24:48
7. Jessica Augusto 2:25:11
8. Valeria Straneo 2:25:27
9. Albina Mayorova 2:25:38
10. Shalane Flanagan 2:25:51
11. Kara Goucher 2:26:07
12. Helalia Johannes 2:26:09
13. Marisa Barros 2:26:13
14. Irina Mikitenko 2:26:44
15. Kimberley Smith 2:26:59