Bellingham native Jake Riley 29th in Olympic marathon...

SAPPORO, Japan--Bellingham native Jake Riley (screen shot courtesy NBC Olympics) finished 29th in the mens marathon Sunday morning at Odori Park in the city that hosted the 1972 Winter Olympics.

Riley, a graduate of Bellingham's Sehome High School finished the race with a time of 2:16:26 in temperatures that approached the mid 80's with humidity approaching 75 percent, despite a 7 am local start time.

Though Riley started the race in the mid 70s, he worked his way up from 76th at the 5k mark to 42nd at the half marathon point, which he crossed in 1:05:56.

Through 35 kilometers, he was moving up, crossing the distance in 20th place at 1:50:08, but struggled over the last 7.2 kilometers, running 17:50 for the 5k between 35 and 40k, losing four places in that stretch, then losing five more spots over the last 2.2 kilometers.

In his five attempts at the marathon, Sunday's mark was his fourth fastest all time, though it was well short of his personal best of 2:10:02 set at the 2020 US Olympic marathon trials in Atlanta.

Kenya's Eliud Kipchoge cemented his spot as perhaps the greatest marathon racer of this generation, winning his second straight Olympic title in 2:08:38, followed by Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands in 2:09:58, and Bashir Abdi of Belgium in 2:10:00.

2016 Olympic bronze medalist Galen Rupp of Portland was the top American in eighth, finishing in 2:11:41, and 44 year old University of Arizona grad Abdi Abdirahman, competing in his fifth Olympics, finished 41st in 2:18:27.

The conclusion of the marathon wrapped up ten days of track and field competition at these Olympics in Tokyo.  Only the marathons and the race walks were contested in Sapporo, to give the athletes the opportunity to compete in cooler temperatures.

Final results of the marathon are available here.

NOTE: The International Olympic Committee, World Athletics, and USA Track & Field contributed to this report.

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