# Athletics at the 2012 Summer Olympics – Women's marathon

The women's marathon at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held on the Olympic marathon street course on 5 August.
The course started and finished on The Mall in central London. Runners completed one short circuit of 2.219 miles around part of the City of Westminster and then three longer circuits of 8 miles around Westminster, the Victoria Embankment and the City of London. The course was designed to pass many of London's best known landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, St Paul's Cathedral, the Guildhall, Leadenhall Market, the Monument, the Tower of London and the Houses of Parliament.
Tiki Gelana from Ethiopia won the gold medal, completing the course in an Olympic record-breaking time of 2 hours 23 minutes 7 seconds. Kenya's Priscah Jeptoo finished second to win silver and Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova, representing Russia, took bronze.

## Records

Prior to this event, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows:
| World record | Paula Radcliffe (GBR) | 2:15:25 | London, United Kingdom | 13 April 2003 |
| Olympic record | Naoko Takahashi (JPN) | 2:23:14 | Sydney, Australia | 24 September 2000 |
| 2012 World leading | Mary Keitany (KEN) | 2:18:37 | London, United Kingdom | 22 April 2012 |
The following new Olympic record was set during this competition:
| Date | Event | Athlete | Time | Notes |
| 5 August | Final | Tiki Gelana (ETH) | 2:23:07 | OR |

## Schedule

All times are British Summer Time (UTC+1)
| Date | Time | Round |
| Sunday, 5 August 2012 | 11:00 | Final |

## Race overview

Starting in the rain, no athlete wanted to run hard from the start. Instead it was a large pack of runners, at times forming a wall across the streets. The pack slowly whittled itself down by 12 km; the ever-present Valeria Straneo emerged to take the point position on the front. Over the next several kilometres, as the rain subsided, Xiaolin Zhu emerged as Straneo's shadow through the half marathon mark in 1:13:13.
Shortly after the half-way mark, Tiki Gelana fell trying to negotiate a water station. Then the lead pack began to take a more serious focus with three Kenyans taking up the pace. Gelana rejoined the pack. Though the pace again slowed, attrition continued. By 28 km the leaders were down to just the three Kenyans and two Ethiopians; Gelana and Mare Dibaba, with Priscah Jeptoo always on the outside. The first to crack was Dibaba. Meanwhile, the significantly less experienced Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova worked her way from far off the pace, past the rest of the athletes who had fallen out of the pack. Arkhipova caught the leaders from behind at 32 km. Just as Arkhipova arrived, the reigning world champion Edna Ngeringwony Kiplagat fell back, though she worked her way back into the lead group a kilometre later.
At the 35 km water stop, Arkhipova accelerated, losing Kiplagat again, this time for good. It was a pack of four through the next 5 km. At 1500 m from the finish Mary Jepkosgei Keitany was the first from the group of four to fall off. At the same time, Gelana accelerated, leaving first Arkhipova, then Jeptoo. A grimacing Gelana powered home to narrowly beat the Olympic record. Tetyana Hamera-Shmyrko came from as far back as 23rd place to take fifth.

## Result

* Entrants as of 27 July 2012.
| Rank | Name | Nationality | Time | Notes |
| | Tiki Gelana | Ethiopia | 2:23:07 | OR |
| | Priscah Jeptoo | Kenya | 2:23:12 | |
| | Tatyana Petrova Arkhipova | Russia | 2:23:29 | PB |
| 4 | Mary Jepkosgei Keitany | Kenya | 2:23:56 | |
| 5 | Tetyana Hamera-Shmyrko | Ukraine | 2:24:32 | Disqualified (Doping) |
| 6 | Zhu Xiaolin | China | 2:24:48 | |
| 7 | Jéssica Augusto | Portugal | 2:25:11 | |
| 8 | Valeria Straneo | Italy | 2:25:27 | |
| 9 | Albina Mayorova | Russia | 2:25:38 | |
| 10 | Shalane Flanagan | United States | 2:25:51 | |
| 11 | Kara Goucher | United States | 2:26:07 | |
| 12 | Helalia Johannes | Namibia | 2:26:09 | NR |
| 13 | Marisa Barros | Portugal | 2:26:13 | |
| 14 | Irina Mikitenko | Germany | 2:26:44 | |
| 15 | Kim Smith | New Zealand | 2:26:59 | |
| 16 | Ryoko Kizaki | Japan | 2:27:16 | |
| 17 | Lisa Jane Weightman | Australia | 2:27:32 | PB |
| 18 | Isabellah Andersson | Sweden | 2:27:36 | |
| 19 | Yoshimi Ozaki | Japan | 2:27:43 | |
| 20 | Edna Kiplagat | Kenya | 2:27:52 | |
| 21 | Ana Dulce Félix | Portugal | 2:28:12 | |
| 22 | Wang Xueqin | China | 2:28:21 | |
| 23 | Mare Dibaba | Ethiopia | 2:28:48 | |
| 24 | Hilda Kibet | Netherlands | 2:28:52 | |
| 25 | Inés Melchor | Peru | 2:28:54 | NR |
| 26 | Alessandra Aguilar | Spain | 2:29:19 | |
| 27 | Rasa Drazdauskaitė | Lithuania | 2:29:29 | PB |
| 28 | Diana Lobačevskė | Lithuania | 2:29:32 | PB |
| 29 | Anna Incerti | Italy | 2:29:38 | |
| 30 | Rosaria Console | Italy | 2:30:09 | |
| 31 | Diane Nukuri | Burundi | 2:30:13 | NR |
| 32 | Susanne Hahn | Germany | 2:30:22 | |
| 33 | Nastassia Staravoitava | Belarus | 2:30:25 | |
| 34 | Sviatlana Kouhan | Belarus | 2:30:26 | |
| 35 | René Kalmer | South Africa | 2:30:51 | |
| 36 | Karolina Jarzyńska | Poland | 2:30:57 | |
| 37 | Souad Aït Salem | Algeria | 2:31:15 | |
| 38 | Beata Naigambo | Namibia | 2:31:16 | |
| 39 | Jessica Trengove | Australia | 2:31:17 | |
| 40 | Jessica Draskau-Petersson | Denmark | 2:31:43 | PB |
| 41 | Chung Yun-Hee | South Korea | 2:31:58 | |
| 42 | Aselefech Mergia | Ethiopia | 2:32:03 | |
| 43 | Gladys Tejeda | Peru | 2:32:07 | PB |
| 44 | Freya Murray | Great Britain | 2:32:14 | |
| 45 | Lidia Șimon | Romania | 2:32:46 | SB |
| 46 | Marisol Romero | Mexico | 2:33:08 | |
| 47 | Adriana Aparecida da Silva | Brazil | 2:33:15 | |
| 48 | Olena Burkovska | Ukraine | 2:33:26 | |
| 49 | Kim Kum-ok | North Korea | 2:33:30 | |
| 50 | Karina Pérez | Mexico | 2:33:30 | |
| 51 | Erika Abril | Colombia | 2:33:33 | NR |
| 52 | Lisa Stublić | Croatia | 2:34:03 | |
| 53 | Maja Neuenschwander | Switzerland | 2:34:50 | |
| 54 | Andrea Mayr | Austria | 2:34:51 | |
| 55 | Wilma Arizapana | Peru | 2:35:09 | |
| 56 | Jon Kyong-Hui | North Korea | 2:35:17 | |
| 57 | Claire Hallissey | Great Britain | 2:35:39 | |
| 58 | Wang Jiali | China | 2:35:46 | |
| 59 | Rehaset Mehari | Eritrea | 2:35:49 | |
| 60 | Iuliia Andreeva | Kyrgyzstan | 2:36:01 | |
| 61 | María Elena Espeso | Spain | 2:36:12 | |
| 62 | Lishan Dula | Bahrain | 2:36:20 | |
| 63 | Bahar Doğan | Turkey | 2:36:35 | |
| 64 | Érika Olivera | Chile | 2:36:41 | SB |
| 65 | Natalia Cercheș | Moldova | 2:37:13 | PB |
| 66 | Linda Byrne | Ireland | 2:37:13 | |
| 67 | Ivana Sekyrová | Czech Republic | 2:37:14 | |
| 68 | Ava Hutchinson | Ireland | 2:37:17 | |
| 69 | Natalia Romero | Chile | 2:37:47 | |
| 70 | Dailín Belmonte | Cuba | 2:38:08 | PB |
| 71 | Ana Subotić | Serbia | 2:38:22 | |
| 72 | Sultan Haydar | Turkey | 2:38:26 | |
| 73 | Samira Raif | Morocco | 2:38:31 | SB |
| 74 | Kim Mi-Gyong | North Korea | 2:38:33 | |
| 75 | Remalda Kergytė | Lithuania | 2:39:01 | |
| 76 | Lim Kyung-Hee | South Korea | 2:39:03 | |
| 77 | Slađana Perunović | Montenegro | 2:39:07 | NR |
| 78 | Volha Dubouskaya | Belarus | 2:39:12 | |
| 79 | Risa Shigetomo | Japan | 2:40:06 | |
| 80 | Amira Ben Amor | Tunisia | 2:40:13 | NR |
| 81 | Tanith Maxwell | South Africa | 2:40:27 | |
| 82 | María Peralta | Argentina | 2:40:50 | |
| 83 | Rosa Chacha | Ecuador | 2:40:57 | SB |
| 84 | Triyaningsih | Indonesia | 2:41:15 | |
| 85 | Beata Rakonczai | Hungary | 2:41:20 | |
| 86 | Constantina Diță | Romania | 2:41:34 | |
| 87 | Leena Puotiniemi | Finland | 2:42:01 | |
| 88 | Žana Jereb | Slovenia | 2:42:50 | |
| 89 | Ümmü Kiraz | Turkey | 2:43:07 | |
| 90 | Mamorallo Tjoka | Lesotho | 2:43:15 | SB |
| 91 | Gabriela Traña | Costa Rica | 2:43:17 | |
| 92 | Zsofia Erdelyi | Hungary | 2:44:45 | |
| 93 | Jane Suuto | Uganda | 2:44:46 | |
| 94 | Yolimar Pineda | Venezuela | 2:45:16 | |
| 95 | Anikó Kálovics | Hungary | 2:45:55 | |
| 96 | Kim Seongeun | South Korea | 2:46:38 | |
| 97 | Vanessa Veiga | Spain | 2:46:53 | |
| 98 | Dace Lina | Latvia | 2:47:47 | |
| 99 | Katarína Berešová | Slovakia | 2:48:11 | |
| 100 | Benita Willis | Australia | 2:49:38 | |
| 101 | Claudette Mukasakindi | Rwanda | 2:51:07 | |
| 102 | Otgonbayar Luvsanlundeg | Mongolia | 2:52:15 | |
| 103 | Evelin Talts | Estonia | 2:54:15 | |
| 104 | Konstadina Kefala | Greece | 3:01:18 | |
| 105 | Ni Lar San | Myanmar | 3:04:27 | |
| 106 | Juventina Napoleão | East Timor | 3:05:07 | PB |
| 107 | Caitriona Jennings | Ireland | 3:22:11 | |
| – | Lucia Kimani | Bosnia and Herzegovina | – | DNF |
| – | Desiree Davila | United States | – | DNF |
| – | Mara Yamauchi | Great Britain | – | DNF |
| – | Tetyana Filonyuk | Ukraine | – | DNF |
| – | Olivera Jevtić | Serbia | – | DNF |
| – | Soumiya Labani | Morocco | – | DNF |
| – | Sharon Tavengwa | Zimbabwe | – | DNF |
| – | Lornah Kiplagat | Netherlands | – | DNF |
| – | Yolanda Caballero | Colombia | – | DNF |
| – | Irvette van Blerk | South Africa | – | DNF |
| – | Liliya Shobukhova | Russia | – | DNF, DSQ |