There are two main things to look for when picking an Olympic marathon team: speed and success.
The 2024 Boston Marathon champion says he expects to be on the roster for the Paris Games when Ethiopian officials make their decisions in the coming weeks. Even before his Boston win, Lemma already had good credentials with a course-record 2 hours, 1 minute, 48 seconds in Valencia last year that was the fourth-fastest ever run in a competitive marathon.
“Because of the fast race I ran in Valencia, the time that I got the fastest time, and also the marathon that I won here, right now from all the Ethiopian athletes I’m the fastest,” Lemma said on Tuesday, a day after winning in Boston. “So I’m confident I am the one who is going to be selected.”
Lemma blistered the Boston course with a 1:00:19 first half, opening a lead of almost three-quarters of a mile with six miles to go. He slowed over the final stretch and finished in 2:06:17 but still beat fellow Ethiopian Mohamed Esa by 41 seconds — the length of more than two football fields.
Lemma said he wanted to redeem himself after finishing 30th and dropping out in two previous Boston attempts. The Olympics are next on his redemption tour; he also dropped out of the race at the Tokyo Games in 2021—AFP
