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1996 Olympic Games Atlanta - Men's Marathon

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Details: Parent Category: Olympic Games (Athletics); Category: 1996 Olympic Games Atlanta - (Athletics); Last Updated: 27 June 2019; Hits: 1594

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Host City: Atlanta, United States

Format: 42,195 metres (26 miles, 385 yards) out-and-back

Date Started: August 4, 1996

Date Finished: August 4, 1996

(Competitors: 119; Countries: 76)

Venue(s): Centennial Olympic Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia

Overview by IAAF

Held in the early morning, the heat was not excessive (23°C), but the humidity was oppressive at 92%. No great surprise that the leading 20 of the biggest Olympic field ever were together at 30Km. Of these, Vanderlei de Lima (BRA) fared worst, tailing off to 47th in the last 12Km. The first half had taken 1:07:36, with the fastest 5Km section (the second) a slow 15:35. At 31Km Thugwane attacked, leaving all except Lee 50m behind, with Wainaina chasing and catching them after 2Km. The 30-35Km section was the fastest of the race (15:11), and the three stayed together for the next 5Km (15:33), a mainly uphill section towards the centre of Atlanta. Fiz, the race favourite and World Champion, had closed to within 70m of the leaders at 38Km, but the three leaders got away on the downhill section to the stadium. Thugwane finally escaped from Lee and Wainaina with 1000m to go, and Lee passed the Kenyan at the entrance to the stadium. The winning margin of three seconds was the slimmest in Olympic history.

Summary by Sports-reference.com

The 1996 Olympic Games were assigned to Atlanta, Georgia, in the Southern United States, and the biggest concern for the marathon was the stifling summer heat and humidity of the American South. Though the European press did not realize it, the two weeks of the Atlanta Olympics were about as cool as that region of the nation ever gets in late July and August. To avoid the heat, the race started at 7:05 AM, but by the time the race ended, the temperature had risen to almost 80° F. (26° C.), with humidity approaching 80%. The Olympic course was designed to basically follow the outline of the course used for the annual Atlanta Marathon, but changed slightly to allow for a start and finish in the Olympic Stadium on the out-and-back course.

There was again no dominant male marathoner entering the 1996 Olympics and the race was considered wide-open. The concern over the heat, and the lack of any favorites, led the pack to run almost together for the bulk of the race and resulted in the closest finish of any Olympic marathon. The three medalists finished within eight seconds of one another, and contested the final outcome on the Olympic track. The race was won by the unheralded Josia Thugwane of South Africa, who held off Korea's Lee Bong-Ju, who finished second, only three seconds back, and Kenya's Erick Wainaina, who won the bronze medal. Thugwane was an experienced marathoner, as the Atlanta race was the 19th of his career. He had won several races in South Africa, but his only marathon victory outside his native country had come in Honolulu in December 1995. He would later win at Fukuoka in 1997. In his native country, because of his new-found riches, he was a marked man. He had been robbed and shot at only a few months before his Olympic victory, and was required to live under bodyguard protection for him and his family.

ecords

Standing records prior to the 1996 Summer Olympics
World Record	Belayneh Densamo (ETH)	2:06:50	April 17, 1988	Rotterdam, Netherlands
Olympic Record	Carlos Lopes (POR)	2:09:21	August 12, 1984	Los Angeles, United States
Season Best	Martín Fiz (ESP)	2:08:25	March 24, 1996	Kyong-Ju, South Korea

		Results
The Men's Marathon at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia was held on Sunday August 4, 1996. The race started at 07.05h local time to avoid excessively hot and humid conditions.^[1] A total number of 111 athletes completed the race, with an injured and limping Abdel Baser Wasiqi from Afghanistan finishing in last position in 4'24:17.^[2] There were a total of 124 competitors from 79 countries. Thirteen competitors did not finish. The medal ceremony took place during the Closing Ceremony which they did again in Athens eight years later. The Race There weren't a lot of favorites in the event. The race started at an Olympic stadium and after 3 1/2 laps of the track they started on the out and back course through Atlanta. There was a large group of about 60 in front. It wasn't until mile 15 that things started to get stirred up. The South Africans made a wall at the front and proceeded to increase the pace. They were joined by Lee Bong- Ju. The race continued as such until mile 17. Josia Thugwane made a move and was joined by Lee Bong-Ju. Meanwhile, Erick Wainaina joined the two in front. The three switched leads several times until Thugwane made a move outside Olympic stadium. He took through the tunnel while Lee Bong-Ju passed the Kenyan. It was the closest finish in olympic history but Thugwane maintained his lead in the last mile to take the gold medallion in 2:12:36. Lee Bong-Ju took silver and Wainaina bronze.
*Marathon*	Men	Final	4 August

Rank	Mark	Athlete	Country	NOC	Birth Date	Records
1	2.12.36	Josiah Thugwane	South Africa	RSA	15 Apr 71
2	2.12.39	Lee Bong-Ju	South Korea	KOR	11 Oct 70
3	2.12.44	Erick Wainaina	Kenya	KEN	19 Dec 73
4	2.13.20	Martín Fiz	Spain	ESP	3 Mar 63
5	2.13.39	Richard Nerurkar	Great Britain	GBR	6 Jan 64
6	2.14.29	Germán Silva	Mexico	MEX	9 Jan 68
7	2.14.35	Steve Moneghetti	Australia	AUS	26 Sep 62
8	2.14.55	Benjamin Paredes	Mexico	MEX	7 Aug 61
9	2.15.08	Danilo Goffi	Italy	ITA	3 Dec 72
10	2.15.55	Luíz Antônio dos Santos	Brazil	BRA	6 Sep 64
11	2.15.56	Carlos Mario Grisales	Colombia	COL	24 Aug 66
12	2.16.17	Kim Jae-Ryong	South Korea	KOR	25 Apr 66
13	2.16.31	Tendai Chimusasa	Zimbabwe	ZIM	28 Jan 71
14	2.16.41	António Pinto	Portugal	POR	22 Mar 66
15	2.16.48	Dionicio Cerón	Mexico	MEX	9 Oct 65
16	2.17.01	Mwenze Kalombo	DR Congo	COD	7 Jun 70
17	2.17.04	Leszek Bebło	Poland	POL	8 Jul 66
18	2.17.24	Alberto Juzdado	Spain	ESP	20 Aug 66
19	2.17.26	Hiromi Taniguchi	Japan	JPN	5 Apr 60
20	2.17.27	Salvatore Bettiol	Italy	ITA	28 Nov 61
21	2.17.28	Peter Fonseca	Canada	CAN	5 Oct 66
22	2.17.40	Rolando Vera	Ecuador	ECU	27 Apr 65
23	2.17.42	Rod De Highden	Australia	AUS	15 Jan 69
24	2.17.49	José Luis Molina	Costa Rica	CRC	8 Mar 65
25	2.18.03	Domingos Castro	Portugal	POR	22 Nov 63
26	2.18.06	Tahar Mansouri	Tunisia	TUN	1 Sep 65
27	2.18.09	Lawrence Peu	South Africa	RSA	13 Feb 66
28	2.18.17	Keith Brantly	United States	USA	23 May 62
29	2.18.26	Thabiso Ralekhetla	Lesotho	LES	3 Mar 60
30	2.18.29	Hristo Stefanov	Bulgaria	BUL	21 Dec 70
31	2.18.38	Bob Kempainen	United States	USA	18 Jun 66
32	2.18.41	Harri Hänninen	Finland	FIN	18 Oct 63
33	2.18.55	Gert Thys	South Africa	RSA	12 Nov 71
34	2.19.35	Sean Quilty	Australia	AUS	16 May 66
35	2.19.39	Carey Nelson	Canada	CAN	4 Jun 63
36	2.19.41	Spirídon Andriópoulos	Greece	GRE	1 Aug 62
37	2.19.51	Oleg Strizhakov	Russia	RUS	18 Jul 63
38	2.19.54	Kim Jung Won	North Korea	PRK	20 Sep 73
39	2.19.56	Bruce Deacon	Canada	CAN	5 Dec 66
40	2.20.19	Kim Jong Su	North Korea	PRK	9 Apr 70
41	2.20.27	Mark Coogan	United States	USA	1 May 66
42	2.20.33	Ahmed Salah	Djibouti	DJI	31 Dec 56
43	2.20.37	Pyotr Sarafinyuk	Ukraine	UKR	28 Sep 65
44	2.20.39	Abdelkader El Mouaziz	Morocco	MAR	1 Jan 69
45	2.20.48	Bert van Vlaanderen	Netherlands	NED	25 Nov 64
46	2.20.58	Manuel Matias	Portugal	POR	30 Mar 62
47	2.21.01	Vanderlei de Lima	Brazil	BRA	11 Aug 69
48	2.21.12	Konrad Dobler	Germany	GER	27 Apr 57
49	2.21.22	Borislav Devic	Croatia	CRO	9 Jan 63
50	2.21.45	Davide Milesi	Italy	ITA	27 Dec 64
51	2.21.50	Aleksandr Prokopchuk	Latvia	LAT	2 May 67
52	2.22.04	Lameck Aguta	Kenya	KEN	10 Oct 71
53	2.22.11	Diego García	Spain	ESP	12 Oct 61
54	2.22.13	Masaki Oya	Japan	JPN	11 Jul 66
55	2.22.37	Peter Whitehead	Great Britain	GBR	3 Dec 64
56	2.23.03	Ezekiel Bitok	Kenya	KEN	15 Feb 66
57	2.23.04	Hsu Gi-Sheng	Chinese Taipei	TPE	2 Jan 64
58	2.23.14	Pavel Loskutov	Estonia	EST	2 Dec 69
59	2.23.24	Ruben Maza	Venezuela	VEN	9 Jun 67
60	2.23.28	Steve Brace	Great Britain	GBR	7 Jul 61
61	2.23.41	Grzegorz Gajdus	Poland	POL	16 Jan 67
62	2.23.43	Isaac Simelane	Swaziland	SWZ	8 Nov 67
63	2.23.59	Nazerdin Akylbekov	Kyrgyzstan	KGZ	14 Jul 66
64	2.24.27	Anders Szalkai	Sweden	SWE	17 Apr 70
65	2.24.45	John Mwathiwa	Malawi	MAW	1 Mar 67
66	2.24.49	Leonid Shvetsov	Russia	RUS	28 Mar 69
67	2.25.04	Eddy Hellebuyck	Belgium	BEL	22 Jan 61
68	2.25.12	Ahmed Adam Salah	Sudan	SUD	10 Jan 66
69	2.25.29	Ikaji Salum	Tanzania	TAN	15 Feb 67
70	2.25.41	Pavelas Fedorenko	Lithuania	LTU	5 Oct 64
71	2.25.56	Miguel Mallqui	Peru	PER	10 Dec 71
72	2.26.02	Ethel Hudson	Indonesia	INA	2 Feb 70
73	2.26.53	Diamantino dos Santos	Brazil	BRA	3 Feb 61
74	2.27.04	Tika Bogate	Nepal	NEP	26 Sep 62
75	2.27.20	Ronnie Holassie	Trinidad and Tobago	TTO	29 Jul 71
76	2.27.52	Joseph Tjitunga	Namibia	NAM
77	2.28.36	Valeriu Vlas	Moldova	MDA	6 Aug 71
78	2.28.49	Daniel Sibandze	Swaziland	SWZ	28 Jan 64
79	2.28.50	Waldemar Cotelo	Uruguay	URU	12 Mar 64
80	2.29.06	Petko Stefanov	Bulgaria	BUL	28 Jan 72
81	2.29.45	Abebe Mekonnen	Ethiopia	ETH	9 Jan 64
82	2.29.55	Luis Martinez	Guatemala	GUA	19 Nov 66
83	2.30.35	Sean Wade	New Zealand	NZL	3 Feb 66
84	2.30.49	Abderrahim Benradouane	Morocco	MAR	2 Mar 66
85	2.30.57	Abdou Monzo	Niger	NIG	59
86	2.31.05	Marcelo Barrientos	Chile	CHI	9 May 70
87	2.31.28	Toni Bernadó	Andorra	AND	9 Dec 66
88	2.32.12	Adel Adili	Libya	LBA	6 Sep 74
89	2.32.35	Carlos Tarazona	Venezuela	VEN	14 Aug 65
90	2.32.55	Tharcisse Gashaka	Burundi	BDI	18 Dec 62
91	2.33.08	Policarpio Calizaya	Bolivia	BOL	10 Sep 62
92	2.33.11	Simon Qamunga	Tanzania	TAN	20 Nov 67
93	2.33.27	Kenjiro Jitsui	Japan	JPN	16 Dec 68
94	2.34.13	Antonio Zeferino	Cape Verde	CPV	17 Jan 66
95	2.34.16	Pamenos Ballantyne	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	VIN	9 Dec 73
96	2.34.40	Kaleka Mutoke	DR Congo	COD	7 Jul 65
97	2.35.55	Ernest Ndjissipou	Central African Republic	CAF	4 Nov 74
98	2.36.01	Ali Ettounsi	Morocco	MAR	66
99	2.37.02	William Aguirre	Nicaragua	NCA	27 Dec 62
100	2.37.10	Roy Vence	Philippines	PHI	22 Feb 66
101	2.40.41	Mohamed Al-Saadi	Yemen	YEM	68	NR
102	2.41.56	Julio Hernandez	Colombia	COL	20 Aug 57
103	2.42.07	Ajay Chuttoo	Mauritius	MRI	13 Nov 65
104	2.44.10	Nils Antonio	Jamaica	JAM	31 Mar 63
105	2.47.10	Rithya To	Cambodia	CAM	10 Oct 67
106	2.47.15	Maximo Oliveras	Mexico	MEX
107	2.47.38	Islam Dugum	Bosnia and Herzegovina	BIH	1 Jun 60
108	2.48.26	Marlon Williams	United States Virgin Islands	ISV	9 Sep 56
109	2.51.41	Eugene Muslar	Belize	BIZ	28 Mar 59
110	2.59.55	Abdi Isak	Somalia	SOM	66
111	4.24.17	Baser Wasiqi	Afghanistan	AFG	12 Jul 75
	DNF	Benjamin Keleketu	Botswana	BOT	6 Feb 65
	DNF	Omar Moussa Bouh	Djibouti	DJI	8 Feb 61
	DNF	Belayneh Dinsamo	Ethiopia	ETH	28 Jun 65
	DNF	Tumo Turbo	Ethiopia	ETH	23 Feb 70
	DNF	Victor Razafindrakoto	Madagascar	MAD	28 Feb 72
	DNF	Patrick Ishyaka	Rwanda	RWA	28 Jul 72
	DNF	Julius Sumawe	Tanzania	TAN	12 Sep 65
	DNF	Kim Wan-Ki	South Korea	KOR	8 Jul 68
	DNF	Risto Ulmala	Finland	FIN	7 May 63
	DNF	Stephan Freigang	Germany	GER	27 Sep 67
	DNF	Ceslovas Kundrotas	Lithuania	LTU	3 Jan 61
	DNF	Dainius Virbickas	Lithuania	LTU	12 Nov 71
	DNF	Antonio Silio	Argentina	ARG	9 May 66

More Details by Marathoninfo

DATED	WINNER MALE	AGE	STARTERS	WITHDRAWALS
Sunday, August 4 at 7:05	Josiah Thugwane (South Africa)	25 years	124 from 79 countries	13 (10.48%)

The race to men when it was much harder to settle than women in mid-career is the Ethiopian Belayneh Dinsamo who took the lead in 1:07:36, who won three months earlier in Rotterdam, where he became the fastest marathoner in the world in 1988, never had the opportunity to shine in the Olympic games. The 25th km they are still in head 25 divided into two groups of 13 and 12 separated by a few seconds. It was then qu'entrèrent in the South African track, we'll talk later, but for them to represent their country was something much more symbolic than others, which may explain their fabulous team spirit. The three South Africans Josiah Thugwane, Gert Thys and Lawrence Few take the reins of the race to dig a hole of about fifteen meters. Only the Korean Lee Bong-Ju, Asian champion that year, accompanied them. But nothing had been played since the 30th km, 19 riders gather in the lead !! The small test of South African strength however served to Thugwane launch ramp, a down Peachtree, forced the pace to go along the Kenyan Eric Wainaina and passente together at 35th km in 1:50: 35.

They were ahead to the moment Korean Lee three seconds, the Spanish Martín Fiz and the Mexican German Silva 4 seconds. In the 5km ensuing Thugwane, Wainaina and Lee wore in turn attacks to make a difference at the foot of the skyscrapers of downtown. Approaching the stage, Lee tried a decisive acceleration which wanted. She let the two marble Africans. Sprinting to the entrance of the tunnel leading to the track, it was quite the contrary Thugwane that his eyes hidden behind glasses indecipherable triathlete, murdered in the dark hopes Korean. He came with 20 meters ahead and preserved loot three seconds at the finish, ending Wainaina to 8 seconds. Never ending an Olympic marathon had been so tight !!

Born April 15, 1971 in Bethal, 200km east of Johannesburg, Thugwane returned from a distance: the bottom of the Koornfontein coal mine, which he had not escaped very young. This is a guy who drives it to participate in a running race in 1988, despite having won R50 at this first experience, the equivalent of a small fortune of $ 11, it was wise not to burn the steps involved in too many trials Souvant those 10 to 80km held on weekends between minors. His debut marathon were difficult, he was unprepared for the modern competition, but in 1995 he finally obtained a first victory in Honolulu in 2:16:08 with a temperature of 28 degrees and a humidity of 90% . The manager of the mine immediately saw the benefits he could gain international success already Thugwane of South Africa Champion in 1993 and in 1996 (2:11:46), so he offered him a job more restful the cafeteria.

In 1996, a second event almost cost him dearly, returning home in his Toyota, he had stopped to take hitchhiked a vague knowledge, when three men rushed inside his vehicle, he followed a scuffle at the heart of which a shot was fired: result, the bullet nicked his chin, who jumped out of the moving car, injuring the back. He spent ten days in hospital and was assigned to a position of oversight sedentary facing monitors.

The third miracle if we could say was the end of apartheid, the South African athletes made their way back to Barcelona precipitated games, but they were not so prépararés and marathon runners are not distinguished in this opportunity. Shortly afterwards, on 28 September 1992 David Tsebe was required in Berlin in 2:08:07, best world performance of the year, and it was then Willie Mtolo right thing in New York in 2: 9:09, then follow good results such as Lawrence Shortly second in 2:10:29 in Fukuoka. This abundance of good results was prolonged by the victories of Thugwane and Colleen Reuck in Honolulu in 1995. As we can see, the end of apartheid released black and white athletes are proving to the whole world. Of apartheid, it happened in rare mixed marathons organized to try to break the international sports boycott, blacks were forced to start well after the whites, because their skin gave them an edge protecting better sun ... the last word will be that of Nelson Mandela to return Thugwane the country, welcomed as a true hero: "It has strengthened our pride and confidence in the south African nation Josiah Thugwane will now be the. example for young people who wish to turn reach the top. "