Elroy Gelant gets his ticket to Paris Olympics after marathon wait

Elroy Gelant’s long wait to get into the Paris Olympics is over with the veteran getting the nod for his third Games.

The 37-year-old, narrowly missing the 2hr 08min 10sec automatic qualifying time after posting a 2:08:56 best in Seville in February, had to sweat it out on the sidelines over the past three-and-a-half months waiting to find out if his position on the world rankings was high enough to book a spot.

Only 80 places were initially earmarked for the marathon races in France, but 85 runners were accepted in the end — 70 automatic qualifiers, four by world ranking and 11 through universality tickets given to countries without qualifiers.

Gelant, the second of the four world rankings qualifiers accepted, finished 33rd in the Tokyo 2020 marathon and 13th in the 5,000m final at Rio 2016. 

The Olympics allows for universality spots for countries with no qualifiers and in the case of track and field they can enter the 100m, 800m or the marathon, pushing up the total number of entrants in those events.

Gelant’s inclusion gives South Africa a second man in the marathon after Stephen Mokoka, who clocked 2:06:42 in Osaka in February 2023.

He and Mokoka were part of the South African side that won the team bronze at the world half-marathon championships in Riga last year.

But Paris 2024 will be the first time since Beijing 2008 that South Africa won’t have the full contingent of three men in the 42.2km event. The Olympics allow nations to enter a maximum of three athletes in each event.

The South African women’s marathon team has three automatic qualifiers in Gerda Steyn, Cian Oldknow and Irvette van Zyl.

With the last qualifying window for track and field ending on June 30 (marathons ended on April 30), there are a few other South African athletes in line to earn Olympic spots through world rankings, notably Jo-Ane van Dyk in the women’s javelin, Kyle Blignaut in the men’s shot put and Victor Hogan in the men’s discus.