Olympics: Ram Singh finishes 78th in men’s marathon

London : Armyman Ram Singh Yadav finished 78th with a time of 2:30.06 hours in the Olympic men’s marathon here at The Mall Sunday, marking the end of India’s athletics campaign at the London Games.

Uganda’s Stephen Kiprotich won his country’s first gold medal in 40 years with a time of 2:08.01. Kiprotich beat Kenya’s current World Champion Abel Kirui by 26 seconds.

The bronze went to another Kenyan, Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich, who led for much of the race but faded in the final stages and finished 10 seconds behind Kirui.

Ram Singh had clocked a career-best 2:16.59 in the Mumbai Marathon earlier in January to enter the Olympics with a ‘B’ qualification mark, which was 2:18.00.

The 31-year-old ended India’s 32-year wait at the Olympic marathon. The last Indian to qualify for the Olympics was Shivnath Singh, who finished 11th in the 1976 Montreal Games but could not finish in the 1980 Moscow edition.

Ram Singh missed the Beijing Games by a whisker of three seconds when he finished with a time of 2:18.23 and the ‘B’ qualification mark was 2:18.20.