Uganda’s Rio 2016 Olympic medal hopes were crushed when 2012 Olympics marathon winner Stephen Kiprotich failed to match his performance four years ago.
The country’s medal hopes lay on Kiprotich’s shoulders, but he came 14th in a race that was won by Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge in 2.08.44 hours. Ethiopia’s Feyisa Lilesa bagged the silver medal while US national Galen Rupp took bronze.
Solomon Mutai, a 2015 World Championship bronze medallist beat Kiprotich taking the eighth position.
Jackson Kiprop who won the Mumbai Marathon in 2013 finished a distant 80th.
During the flagging off of the Ugandan marathoners at National Council of Sports offices in Lugogo last week, Kiprotich promised that all the Olympic marathon medals would go the Ugandans but the Kenyan who he trained with for the games had other ideas.
Kiprotich remains a Ugandan legend though, the second to win an Olympic gold medal after John Akii Bua’s 1972 Munich Olympics gold in the 400 metres hurdles.
Kiprotich also won the Moscow IAAF championship marathon in August 2013 becoming the second person in history, after Gezahegne Abera, to follow an Olympic marathon gold medal with a world championship gold medal.