Tola, Oct. 18 -- Tamirat Tola crossed the line at the Beijing Olympic Park on Sunday having taken nearly four minutes off a course record that dated from 2019, and the two Ethiopians who followed him were inside the old mark too.

07:06, was set by Kenya's Mathew Kipkoech Kisorio. Muktar Edris took second in 2:04:34 and Adane Kebede Gebre third in 2:05:10, so Ethiopian runners swept the men's podium and three men beat the old mark in a single race.

The margin is the story. Subtracting the two times gives 3 minutes 56 seconds, and by the same arithmetic Edris finished 2:32 inside the old record and Gebre 1:56 inside it. Tola arrived with the titles to match: Xinhua noted that he won the marathon at the 2022 World Athletics Championships i...