---
title: "César once again so close... but so far from Rio 2016"
published: 2016-04-10
updated: 2026-08-04
source: "https://dev-abp.massivoai.com/en/articles/cesar-otra-vez-tan-cerca-pero-tan-lejos-de-rio-2016"
---

# César once again so close... but so far from Rio 2016

**César Lizano ran another nearly perfect race. As in Houston, three months ago, from the start of the marathon César settled into the pace that would take him to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and stayed there throughout the marathon... except for the final kilometers.**

The Rotterdam Marathon was his fourth, and probably his last attempt to achieve the Olympic standard of 2:19:00. In Houston, on January 17th, he fell short by only 8 seconds. Today, in Rotterdam, it was 24 seconds that separated him from his second Olympics. Both races were nearly identical; César's splits in Houston and Rotterdam differ by no more than 15 seconds at any point in the races. That is, if the César from Houston had run with the César from Rotterdam today, they would have been almost together the entire race.

César has always said that maintaining a constant pace for a long time comes easily to him, that is his strength. And he has proven it in these recent marathons. They were well-planned races, at the right pace, with the only failure being not having that last bit of strength to finish strong in the final two or three kilometers and achieve the desired time.

As shown in the table below, César stayed within the planned time at least until kilometer 35, and it was in the final kilometers that he slightly slowed his pace and fell away from 2:19:00.

![lizano houston](https://scontent-mia1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xtf1/t31.0-8/12968171_1084321441625180_964246477162999191_o.png "lizano houston")

Only twice in his career has César run under 2:19:00. The first was in 2011, in Chicago, when he achieved the best time of his life to qualify for the London 2012 Olympics. On that occasion he ran the Chicago Marathon in 2:17:50. Then, in 2014, he ran the Sacramento Marathon in 2:18:19.

Lizano had said that Houston would be his last attempt to go to Rio. Later he changed his mind, decided to continue the fight and try again in Rotterdam. It is likely that this time it really is the last attempt since there are only four months left until the Rio Games.

With this result from César, it is almost certain that Costa Rica will not have any representative in the Olympic marathon in August. Jenny Méndez and Gabriela Traña did not achieve the 2:45:00 standard, and César is the only man trying.

A Buen Paso uses [Massivo](https://massivoai.com), the event-registration platform that powers this article.