Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's marathon


The women's marathon at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held on the Olympic marathon street course on 5 August.
The course started and finished on The Mall in central London. Runners completed one short circuit of 2.219 miles around part of the City of Westminster and then three longer circuits of 8 miles around Westminster, the Victoria Embankment and the City of London. The course was designed to pass many of London's best known landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Paul's Cathedral, the Guildhall, Leadenhall Market, the Monument, the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament.
Tiki Gelana from Ethiopia won the gold medal, completing the course in an Olympic record-breaking time of 2 hours 23 minutes 7 seconds. Kenya's Priscah Jeptoo finished second to win silver and Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova, representing Russia, took bronze.

Records

, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
World record2:15:25London, United Kingdom13 April 2003
Olympic record2:23:14Sydney, Australia24 September 2000
2012 World leading2:18:37London, United Kingdom22 April 2012

The following new Olympic record was set during this competition:
DateEventAthleteTimeNotes
5 AugustFinal2:23:07OR

Schedule

All times are British Summer Time
DateTimeRound
Sunday, 5 August 201211:00Final

Race overview

Starting in the rain, no athlete wanted to run hard from the start. Instead it was a large pack of runners, at times forming a wall across the streets. The pack slowly whittled itself down by 12 km; the ever-present Valeria Straneo emerged to take the point position on the front. Over the next several kilometres, as the rain subsided, Xiaolin Zhu emerged as Straneo's shadow through the half marathon mark in 1:13:13.
Shortly after the half-way mark, Tiki Gelana fell trying to negotiate a water station. Then the lead pack began to take a more serious focus with three Kenyans taking up the pace. Gelana rejoined the pack. Though the pace again slowed, attrition continued. By 28 km the leaders were down to just the three Kenyans and two Ethiopians; Gelana and Mare Dibaba, with Priscah Jeptoo always on the outside. The first to crack was Dibaba. Meanwhile, the significantly less experienced Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova worked her way from far off the pace, past the rest of the athletes who had fallen out of the pack. Arkhipova caught the leaders from behind at 32 km. Just as Arkhipova arrived, the reigning world champion Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat fell back, though she worked her way back into the lead group a kilometre later.
At the 35 km water stop, Arkhipova accelerated, losing Kiplagat again, this time for good. It was a pack of four through the next 5 km. At 1500 m from the finish Mary Jepkosgei Keitany was the first from the group of four to fall off. At the same time, Gelana accelerated, leaving first Arkhipova, then Jeptoo. A grimacing Gelana powered home to narrowly beat the Olympic record. Tetyana Hamera-Shmyrko came from as far back as 23rd place to take fifth.

Result

RankNameNationalityTimeNotes
Tiki Gelana2:23:07OR
Priscah Jeptoo2:23:12
Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova2:23:29PB
4Mary Keitany2:23:56
5Tetyana Hamera-Shmyrko2:24:32NR
6Zhu Xiaolin2:24:48
7Jéssica Augusto2:25:11
8Valeria Straneo2:25:27
9Albina Mayorova2:25:38
10Shalane Flanagan2:25:51
11Kara Goucher2:26:07
12Helalia Johannes2:26:09NR
13Marisa Barros2:26:13
14Irina Mikitenko2:26:44
15Kim Smith2:26:59
16Ryoko Kizaki2:27:16
17Lisa Jane Weightman2:27:32PB
18Isabellah Andersson2:27:36
19Yoshimi Ozaki2:27:43
20Edna Kiplagat2:27:52
21Ana Dulce Félix2:28:12
22Wang Xueqin2:28:21
23Mare Dibaba2:28:48
24Hilda Kibet2:28:52
25Inés Melchor2:28:54NR
26Alessandra Aguilar2:29:19
27Rasa Drazdauskaitė2:29:29PB
28Diana Lobačevskė2:29:32PB
29Anna Incerti2:29:38
30Rosaria Console2:30:09
31Diane Nukuri2:30:13NR
32Susanne Hahn2:30:22
33Nastassia Staravoitava2:30:25
34Sviatlana Kouhan2:30:26
35René Kalmer2:30:51
36Karolina Jarzyńska2:30:57
37Souad Aït Salem2:31:15
38Beata Naigambo2:31:16
39Jessica Trengove2:31:17
40Jessica Draskau-Petersson2:31:43PB
41Chung Yun-Hee2:31:58
42Aselefech Mergia2:32:03
43Gladys Tejeda2:32:07PB
44Freya Murray2:32:14
45Lidia Șimon2:32:46SB
46Marisol Romero2:33:08
47Adriana Aparecida da Silva2:33:15
48Olena Burkovska2:33:26
49Kim Kum-ok2:33:30
50Karina Pérez2:33:30
51Erika Abril2:33:33NR
52Lisa Stublić2:34:03
53Maja Neuenschwander2:34:50
54Andrea Mayr2:34:51
55Wilma Arizapana2:35:09
56Jon Kyong-Hui2:35:17
57Claire Hallissey2:35:39
58Wang Jiali2:35:46
59Rehaset Mehari2:35:49
60Iuliia Andreeva2:36:01
61María Elena Espeso2:36:12
62Lishan Dula2:36:20
63Bahar Doğan2:36:35
64Érika Olivera2:36:41SB
65Natalia Cerches2:37:13PB
66Linda Byrne2:37:13
67Ivana Sekyrová2:37:14
68Ava Hutchinson2:37:17
69Natalia Romero2:37:47
70Dailín Belmonte2:38:08PB
71Ana Subotić2:38:22
72Sultan Haydar2:38:26
73Samira Raif2:38:31SB
74Kim Mi-Gyong2:38:33
75Remalda Kergytė2:39:01
76Lim Kyung-Hee2:39:03
77Slađana Perunović2:39:07NR
78Volha Dubouskaya2:39:12
79Risa Shigetomo2:40:06
80Amira Ben Amor2:40:13NR
81Tanith Maxwell2:40:27
82María Peralta2:40:50
83Rosa Chacha2:40:57SB
84Triyaningsih2:41:15
85Beata Rakonczai2:41:20
86Constantina Diță2:41:34
87Leena Puotiniemi2:42:01
88Žana Jereb2:42:50
89Ümmü Kiraz2:43:07
90Mamorallo Tjoka2:43:15SB
91Gabriela Traña2:43:17
92Zsofia Erdelyi2:44:45
93Jane Suuto2:44:46
94Yolimar Pineda2:45:16
95Anikó Kálovics2:45:55
96Kim Seongeun2:46:38
97Vanessa Veiga2:46:53
98Dace Lina2:47:47
99Katarína Berešová2:48:11
100Benita Willis2:49:38
101Claudette Mukasakindi2:51:07
102Otgonbayar Luvsanlundeg2:52:15
103Evelin Talts2:54:15
104Konstadina Kefala3:01:18
105Ni Lar San3:04:27
106Juventina Napoleão3:05:07PB
107Caitriona Jennings3:22:11
–Lucia Kimani–DNF
–Liliya Shobukhova–DNF
–Desiree Davila–DNF
–Mara Yamauchi–DNF
–Tetyana Filonyuk–DNF
–Olivera Jevtić–DNF
–Soumiya Labani–DNF
–Sharon Tavengwa–DNF
–Lornah Kiplagat–DNF
–Yolanda Caballero–DNF
–Irvette van Blerk–DNF