Tokyo Olympics 2020 - Irish Day 9 Summary

Tokyo 2020 - Athletics Day 8 Summary

Saturday August 7th - Sunday August 8th

Tokyo 2020

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Tokyo Olympics 2020 - Irish Day 1 Summary

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Tokyo Olympics 2020 - Irish Day 7 Summary

Where to Watch

Coverage on RTE 2 and BBC 1 begins at Midnight most nights, while Eurosport 1 & 2 (Sky Channels 410 and 411) have round-the-clock coverage, including replays

Note: Tokyo is 8 hours ahead of Ireland

Mens Marathon


Stephen Scullion	Paul Pollock	Kein Seaward

Like for yesterday's Womens Marathon, conditions were tough again today, with temperatures close to 30C, with humidity in the high 70's, even if today was somewhat cloudy and overcast. There was some respite from a slight breeze

The conditions led to a high attrition rate with 21 athletes pulling up by 30km, with Stephen Scullion among those, with his race ending by half-way. The casualties including many high profile names

Kipchoge threw down the gauntlet around the 30km mark, covering the next 5k in 14:28, and the lead group was found wanting. He won in 2:08:38, with 1:20 to spare over Nageeye, NED, and Abdi, BEL, a further 2 seconds behind. Kipchoge become only the third ever athlete to retain his Olympic Marathon Title.

Kevin Seaward and Paul Pollock struggled in the latter stages, like the vast majority in the field, nevertheless Seaward made up 24 places after the 25km mark,while Pollock made up 10 places over the same distance. Paul Pollock finished in 58th place, in 2:21:45, while Kevin Seaward finished 71st, in 2:27:48

Splits

Stage	Leader		Scullion		Pollock		Seaward
		Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time	Pos	Time
5km	Petros	0:15:17	73	0:15:36	90	0:16:06	103	0:16:16
10km	Kipchoge	0:30:53	86	0:32:10	92	0:32:31	97	0:32:35
15km	Do Nascimento	0:46:03	98	0:50:47	85	0:48:27	90	0:48:37
20km	Suarez	1:01:47	-	-		1:05:01
Half	Mokoka	1:15:03			80	1:08:39	86	1:08:52
25km	Kipchoge	1:17:24			81	1:21:37	82	1:21:52
30km	Kipchoge	1:32:31			73	1:39:30	71	1:38:41
35km	Kipchoge	1:46:59			71	1:58:24	59	1:55:38
40km	Kipchoge	2:01:55			73	2:19:00	55	2:13:59
Mar	Kipchoge	2:08:38			71	2:27:48	58	2:21:45

Athletics Ireland Report

Tokyo 2020 - Aug 8th Report

The Olympic Marathon concluded the invovlement of Irish athletics athletes at these Games in the most brutal hot and humid condiitons in Saporro which saw 30 athletes fail to finish

Kevin Seaward finished 58th and Paul Pollock was 71st after enduring the tough 42km route

The race was won by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge who clocked 2:08:38 despite intense heat with 28 degrees and 80% humidity in Sapporo

There was disappointment for Stephen Scullion who was one 30 to drop out during the event. The 32-year old withdrew before the 20km mark

Seaward and Pollock ran patient races and both were close by going through the half way mark

Seaward, who clained this was his toughest ever race began to make his move with 15km to go and picked up almost 30 places to finish in a time of 2:21:45

“I learned a lot about myself there in terms of resilience and inner strength. I am a teacher, some days I wake up and think what am I doing at the Olympics with all these guys,” said Seward post-race to RTE

“I learned a lot about myself. When I was going through there I was telling myself, ‘you have to be resilient. you tell the children this in school. It is really tough. It is easy to stop. Just don’t. Keep going, keep working hard.’ I learned I can dig deep when I need to.”

Pollock was passed by his Irish team mate as they reached the 20k marker where the humidity had begun to take it's toll

Pollock bravely battled on and although visibly exhausted, he crossed the finish line at an Olympic Games for the second time, clcoking 2:27:48. Pollock also competed at Rio in 2016