Abebe Bikila Won 1964 Tokyo Marathon Part - 2

1964 Tokyo Japan Summer Olympics

Abebe Bikila traveled to Tokyo but was not expected to compete. He did enter the marathon, this time wearing Puma shoes. While he had spoken with Kihachiro Onitsuka of the future Asics company, he was pursued actively by Adidas and Puma, ultimately deciding to wear Puma shoes. He used the same strategy as in 1960: to stay with the leaders until the 20 kilometer point, then slowly increase his pace. After 15 km he only had company from Ron Clarke of Australia and Jim Hogan of Ireland. Shortly before 20 km only Hogan was in contention and by 30 km, Bikila was 40 seconds in front of Hogan and two minutes in front of Kokichi Tsuburaya of Japan in third place. He entered the Olympic stadium alone to the cheers of 70,000 spectators. He finished the marathon in a new world record time of 2:12:11:2; 4 minutes, 8 seconds in front of the silver medalist Basil Heatley of Great Britain. Kokichi Tsuburaya was third. He was the first athlete in history to win the Olympic marathon twice. After finishing he astonished the crowd: not appearing exhausted, he started a routine of stretching exercises. He later stated that he could have run another 10 kilometers.

Bikila returned to Ethiopia to a hero's welcome once again. He was again promoted by the Emperor, and he received his own car, a white Volkswagen Beetle.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Abebebe
• Bikila
• olympics
• track
• Marathon
• games
• field
• Track and field
• gold