António Zeferino was 34 years old at the time of the Sydney Olympics, and was making the second of his three Olympic appearances. Four years prior, in the Atlanta marathon, he had finished with a time of 2 hours, 34 minutes and 13 seconds; and had ranked 94th out of 111 classified finishers. In the Sydney marathon, he finished with a time of 2 hours, 29 minutes and 46 seconds; which put him in 67th place out of 81 men who finished the race. The gold medal was won by Gezahegne Abera of Ethiopia in a time of 2 hours, 10 minutes and 11 seconds; silver was taken by Erick Wainaina of Kenya, and bronze was won by Tesfaye Tola, also of Ethiopia. Zeferino would go on to race the Olympic marathon again in the 2004 Summer Olympics, but Sydney was the highest finish and fastest race of his Olympic career.