In France fourth place is jokingly known as the médaille en chocolat, Emile Cairess had no issues accepting his prize, though in this sort of heat had to hope it wouldn’t melt.

On the hardest Olympic marathon course of all-time, the Bradford athlete claimed the scalps of some of distance running's biggest names as he recorded the best British performance in two decades.

Eliud Kipchoge, the world record holder seeking an improbable third straight Olympic gold, found it so tough he resorted to walking. It was pretty exhausting to watch, let alone run.

Cairess, though, rhythmically powered up and down a series of stubborn hills on the city outskirts and crossed the line at Invalides just 29 seconds outside a place on the podium.

Scenic backdrop: Bradford's Emile Cairess representing Team Great Britain runs past the Eiffel Tower on his way to fourth place in the Olympic marathon (Picture: Maja Hitij/Getty Images)

"I’m really proud of myself, I’m really happy with that," he said, his position equalling Jon Brown's result at the 2004 Games in Athens while Leeds team-mate Phil Sesemann came 46th in 2:13:08.

"I just wanted to give myself a chance. That was my thinking, just try to run as fast as I could until the end.

"Maybe one of them would blow up and I could catch them, but it just so happened that three of them didn’t blow up.

"The course was tough, it was really hard, probably harder than I even imagined.

Emile Cairess of Team Great Britain runs towards the finish line to finish fourth during the Men's Marathon on day fifteen of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 at Esplanade Des Invalides (Picture: Michael Steele/Getty Images)

"I’ve only done two marathons. London is pretty flat and with the hills this felt much longer too."

Cairess is a man of few words, but he can be forgiven that after slogging away for over 26 miles as the cool early morning morphed into searing temperatures and breathless humidity in the French capital.

In recent Games we've become used to dead flat and dead boring city centre circuit marathons, but Paris dared to be different, saving this sadistic test until last.

The athletes wouldn’t have appreciated it, but it made the race significantly more interesting for those watching.

Cairess is already the second fastest British marathon runner of all-time and aged just 26 is athlete fast approaching his prime.

This run will earn him some lucrative invites from the World Marathon Majors series and the compete regularly with the best in the world will be crucial in his development at this level.

It's a long time to the next Olympics but Los Angeles was the last city where Britain won a men's marathon medal, Charlie Spedding's bronze in 1984.

"I’ll try to train more, be consistent and not put pressure on myself to do anything else," he added.

"I've got big ambitions; I want to be competitive but I'm also realistic about how tough this sport is. It’s just a lot of hard work ahead, there aren’t any shortcuts.”

Kipchoge's poor performance may overshadow Ethiopia's Tamirat Tola's gold medal run, a brilliant display of forward running that broke the resolve of his rivals.

Belgium's Bashir Abdi and Kenya's Benson Kipruto completed the podium, but Tola seemed in total control from early in the race.

Calli Hauger-Thackery was unable to finish the Olympic women’s marathon in Paris, the 31-year-old Hallamshire Harrier puling up after 25km in sweltering French conditions as fellow Team GB star Clara Evans led the British contingent home having only discovered she would be racing last weekend after the withdrawal of Charlotte Purdue due to injury. Despite her relative inexperience, she clocked 2:33.01.

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