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Baldini wins Olympic men's marathon
Stefano Baldini of Italy won a dramatic men's marathon at the Olympic Games on Sunday after long-time race leader Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil was attacked by a spectator.
Stefano Baldini of Italy won a dramatic men's marathon at the Olympic Games on Sunday after long-time race leader Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil was attacked by a spectator in the latter stages of the race.
De Lima had taken the lead early in the race and maintained a 20-second advantage over the chasing pack until a man appeared from the crowd five miles from the finish.
The man, wearing what appeared to be a kilt, pushed the Brazilian into the spectators lining the roadside. De Lima was freed from the man's grasp and resumed the lead.
However, the pack had already been closing and within five minutes, Baldini had caught and passed De Lima before stretching out his lead.
Baldini entered the Panathinaiko Stadium alone and the man who was forced to drop out of the race in Sydney four years ago ran through the tape in 2hr 10min 55sec.
Mebrahtom Keflezighi of the United States took the silver medal in 2:11:29 and behind him, Lima managed to shrug off the attack and hold off the fast-closing Jon Brown of Britain to hang on for the bronze medal in a time of 2:12:11.
Brown was fourth for the second consecutive Olympics, while world record holder Paul Tergat of Kenya was tenth, one place ahead of world champion Jaouad Gharib of Morocco.
De Lima said the incident had cost him the gold medal.
"I was very shocked," he said. "I'm glad with the bronze but I was giving everything I had for the gold medal when he attacked.
"I'm not physically hurt but it threw me out of my rythmn. I am sure I would have won the gold if it had not been for this crazy idiot.
"I lost the gold medal in that moment but I was afraid because I didn't know whether he was armed."
Baldini was confident he would have won even without the unwelcome intrusion.
"The way I was running nobody could have beaten me today," the 33-year-old said.
"I came here in top condition. Today I was sure I could win although I was worried during the first half of the race because it was too slow. I was glad when Gharib made a move at 25 kilometres to speed things up."
Keflezighi, who was born in Eritrea, was delighted to collect the bronze medal. "I worked my butt off for this," he said.
