Stefano Baldini of Italy has won the men’s marathon in sensational circumstances after long-time race leader, Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil, was grabbed by a protester and delayed on his run.
It was the first high-profile security breach of the Olympic Games.
With three and a half miles of the race remaining, De Lima was stunned to be jostled into the crowd by the spectator, dressed in costume, who was allowed to run from one side of the wide road to the other.
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Greek police later identified the spectator as Irishman Cornelius Horan, 47, who also disrupted the British Grand Prix at Silverstone in July last year.
Horan was dressed in a kilt and wearing a beret with some writing scrawled on his back.
Horan, a former Catholic priest, ran on to the main straight in last year’s Grand Prix race as the Formula One cars sped around the circuit, and was handed a two-month prison sentence.
Although there were road-side barriers along the course, Horan was not stopped by security and briefly chaos ensued.
De Lima emerged from the shocked crowd holding his right thigh, although it was not immediately clear whether he had been injured in the incident.
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He almost stumbled over the line at the end, taking third place and the bronze medal, but for De Lima it was a case of what might have been without the earlier drama involving the intruder.
De Lima was the focus of attention once he crossed the finish line, and he was quick to state that the incident had ruined his plans.
“I trained a lot for this and I’m very happy to win this bronze medal. If that spectator didn’t jump in front of me in the middle of the race, who knows what would have happened. Maybe I would have won. It disturbed me a lot,” he said.
“For me it was very difficult because I didn’t know what he had with him. I was very afraid.
“I lost my rhythm and I had to get back to the rhythm on the street and it was very difficult. I could have done better.”
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The worry for the Athens Olympic Committee (ATHOC) will be that although there are road-side barriers along the course, the spectator was not stopped by security and briefly chaos ensued.
Clearly, it could have been a far more serious situation had Horan carried a weapon.
The International Olympic Committee’s executive board went into immediate discussion over the incident, and only hours later the IAAF race jury confirmed that the incident would not impact upon the race’s final standings.
Before the IAAF race jury reached their decision, the IOC released a statement which read: “The IOC is saddened by the incident.
“The executive board has met. However, we must await the decision of the IAAF jury which is meeting now.
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“At that time, once they have taken their decision, we will give our position.
“All this will be in time for the medal ceremony.”
The face of the race was already changing before the intrusion, with De Lima’s lead being gobbled up quickly.
Mebrahtom Keflezighi from the United States won silver, and de Lima held off a fast finishing Jon Brown from Great Britain, who came in fourth, to claim the bronze medal.
For a long while, it looked as though Brown might get among the medals.
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The 33-year-old commendably kept pace with the pack of athletes who were chasing down De Lima.
Brown worked his way through the field from 67th place after five kilometres, to 50th after 15 kilometres, to seventh after 25 kilometres, and then remarkably to second place after 30 kilometres.
He had finished fourth in the Sydney marathon and was looking in good shape to secure a similarly lofty position again.
The turn of pace from De Lima had surprised his rivals, and he led by almost 50 seconds at one stage.
There was no immediate response, which was surprising given the standard of athletes in the race.
World record holder Paul Tergat of Kenya was in the pack which contained Brown, as were Ambesse Tolosa from Ethiopia, Jaouad Gharib of Morocco, Keflezighi and Baldini.
De Lima had apparently gone out too quickly, and too soon, and regardless of the attack, it was unlikely he would have maintained his lead.
Baldini completed the course aggressively, clocking 2:10:55, while Keflezighi came home in 2:11:29, ahead of Lima who struggled on his lap of the Panathinaiko Stadium, finishing in 2:12:11.
Brown, missing out on a medal again, was officially timed at 2:12:26.