Elroy Gelant called on his warrior spirit and decided that he had to get to the finish line in Tokyo. Tokyo2020 Olympics TeamSA By AshfakMohamed IOLSport
In the first half of the race, though, his ambitions were loftier. Gelant and Mokoka stayed with the top group led by defending champion and world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge through 25km, with Mokoka even going to the front for a brief period.
Kipchoge, as expected, took the gold in 2:08:38, with Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands a surprise silver medallist in 2:09:58, with Bashir Abdi of Belgium third in 2:10:00.Gelant slowly moved down the field as the punishing conditions wore him down, but while he was pipped to a top-30 position in the closing stages, he can be proud of his effort to cross the line in 2:16:43 to claim 34th place – the same number as his age.
“Myself, Stephen and Desmond, we said from the start that our goal is to get a medal for South Africa. And we did try. In the first 25 kilometres, we were up there with the leading guys.
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