Athletics at the 1964 Summer Olympics – Men's marathon

This was the 15th appearance of the event, which is one of 12 athletics events to have been held at every Summer Olympics. Returning runners from the 1960 marathon included defending champion Abebe Bikila of Ethiopia and ninth-place finisher Osvaldo Suárez of Argentina. Bikila was favored to repeat. Significant challengers were Toru Terasawa of Japan (who had taken the world record from Bikila at the 1963 Beppu-Ōita Marathon and held it until the 1963 Polytechnic Marathon), Leonard Edelen of the United States (who had held the world record from the 1963 Polytechnic to the 1964 Polytechnic), and Basil Heatley of Great Britain (the current world record, who had broken it at the 1964 Polytechnic).[2]

Luxembourg, Nepal, Puerto Rico, Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia, Tanzania, Thailand, and Vietnam each made their first appearance in Olympic marathons. The United States made its 15th appearance, the only nation to have competed in each Olympic marathon to that point.

As all Olympic marathons, the competition was a single race. The marathon distance of 26 miles, 385 yards was run over an out-and-back course. The course was very flat and straight.[2]

These were the standing world and Olympic records prior to the 1964 Summer Olympics.

World record	Basil Heatley (GBR)	2:13:55	London, United Kingdom	13 June 1964
Olympic record	Abebe Bikila (ETH)	2:15:16.2	Rome, Italy	10 September 1960

Abebe Bikila set a new world record at 2:12:11.2.

All times are Japan Standard Time (UTC+9)

Bikila broke the world's best time for the marathon by 1 minute 44 seconds set by runner-up Basil Heatley four months prior at the Polytechnic Marathon to defend his Olympic gold medal.

Rank	Athlete	Nation	Time	Notes
	Abebe Bikila	Ethiopia	2:12:11.2	WR
	Basil Heatley	Great Britain	2:16:19.2
	Kōkichi Tsuburaya	Japan	2:16:22.8
4	Brian Kilby	Great Britain	2:17:02.4
5	József Sütő	Hungary	2:17:55.8
6	Leonard Edelen	United States	2:18:12.4
7	Aurèle Vandendriessche	Belgium	2:18:42.6
8	Kenji Kimihara	Japan	2:19:49.0
9	Ron Clarke	Australia	2:20:26.8
10	Demissie Wolde	Ethiopia	2:21:25.2
11	Lee Sang-hun	South Korea	2:22:02.8
12	Bakir Benaïssa	Morocco	2:22:27.0
13	Eino Oksanen	Finland	2:22:36.0
14	Billy Mills	United States	2:22:55.4
15	Toru Terasawa	Japan	2:23:09.0
16	Kim Yun-Bum	South Korea	2:24:40.6
17	Giorgio Jegher	Italy	2:24:45.2
18	Václav Chudomel	Czechoslovakia	2:24:46.8
19	Ron Hill	Great Britain	2:25:34.4
20	Paavo Pystynen	Finland	2:26:00.6
21	Fidel Negrete	Mexico	2:26:07.0
22	Nikolay Tikhomirov	Soviet Union	2:26:07.4
23	Pete McArdle	United States	2:26:24.4
24	Heinrich Hagen	United Team of Germany	2:26:39.8
25	Pavel Kantorek	Czechoslovakia	2:26:47.2
26	Nikolay Abramov	Soviet Union	2:27:09.4
27	Ray Puckett	New Zealand	2:27:34.0
28	Eino Valle	Finland	2:27:34.8
29	Jeff Julian	New Zealand	2:27:57.6
30	Ricardo Vidal	Chile	2:28:01.6
31	Robert Vagg	Australia	2:28:41.0
32	Guido Vögele	Switzerland	2:29:17.8
33	Balkrishan Akotkar	India	2:29:27.4
34	Jean Aniset	Luxembourg	2:29:52.6
35	Thin Sumbwegam	Burma	2:30:35.8
36	Constantin Grecescu	Romania	2:30:42.6
37	Janos Pinter	Hungary	2:30:50.2
38	Gerhard Hönicke	United Team of Germany	2:33:23.0
39	Manfred Naumann	United Team of Germany	2:33:42.0
40	Antonio Ambu	Italy	2:34:37.6
41	Oskar Leupi	Switzerland	2:35:05.4
42	Ivan Keats	New Zealand	2:36:16.8
43	Harbans Lal	India	2:37:05.8
44	Armando Aldegalega	Portugal	2:38:02.2
45	Chrisantus Nyakwayo	Kenya	2:38:38.6
46	Constantino Kapambwe	Northern Rhodesia	2:39:28.4
47	Omari Abdallah	Tanzania	2:40:06.0
48	Muhammad Youssef	Pakistan	2:40:46.0
49	Naftali Temu	Kenya	2:40:46.6
50	Ju Hyeong-gyeol	South Korea	2:41:08.2
51	Mathias Kanda	Rhodesia	2:41:09.0
52	Anthony Cook	Australia	2:42:03.6
53	Víctor Peralta	Mexico	2:44:23.6
54	Trevor Haynes	Northern Rhodesia	2:45:08.6
55	Abraham Fornés	Puerto Rico	2:46:22.6
56	Robson Mrombe	Rhodesia	2:49:30.8
57	Laurent Chifita	Northern Rhodesia	2:51:52.2
58	Chanom Sirirangsri	Thailand	2:59:25.6
—	Ganga Bahadur Thapa	Nepal	DNF	2:23:41 at 40 km
	Bhupendra Silwal	Nepal	DNF	2:34:12 at 40 km
	James Hogan	Ireland	DNF	1:51:27 at 35 km
	Viktor Baykov	Soviet Union	DNF	1:39:13 at 30 km
	Mohamed Hadheb Hannachi	Tunisia	DNF	1:46:18 at 30 km
	Andrew Soi	Kenya	DNF	1:23:37 at 25 km
	Osvaldo Roberto Suarez	Argentina	DNF	1:09:00 at 20 km
	Mamo Wolde	Ethiopia	DNF	0:47:14 at 15 km
	Hedhili Ben Boubaker	Tunisia	DNF	0:47:51 at 15 km
	Nguyễn Văn Lý	Vietnam	DNF	1:02:51 at 15 km
—	Jean Louis Brougier	France	DNS
	Dumitru Chitoban	Romania	DNS
	Suliman Fighi Hassan	Libya	DNS
	Mohammed Gammoudi	Tunisia	DNS
	Alberto Garabito	Bolivia	DNS
	Ranatunge Karunananda	Sri Lanka	DNS
	Bruce Kidd	Canada	DNS
	Lajos Mecser	Hungary	DNS
	Alejo Montano	Bolivia	DNS
	Jean Randrianjatovo	Madagascar	DNS
	Ryoo Man-Hyung	North Korea	DNS

• Official Report
• (in French) Marathon Info