Australia’s oldest athlete at 40 years of age, Westcott clocked two hours, 22 minutes and 19 seconds to round out the tricky Copacabana Beach loop, 42.2 kilometre run.

For Westcott, completing the marathon at an Olympic games was the realisation of a dream that began almost two decades ago.

Having qualified but missed selection for the 5000m and 10,000m for the Sydney 2000 Games, and for the Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008 marathons, Westcott is now an Olympian.

Westcott now also holds a special place in Australian track and field history as our oldest Olympics debutant.

“I’m just proud to be here, proud Australian,” Westcott told rio2016.olympics.com.

“I’m trying to take it all in because this is my one chance to do that, I was pretty pleased to hold it together today, it got rough pretty quickly.”

Just finishing a marathon is a milestone moment.

To do so in an Olympics is even more special. And Rio’s humidity made this a tough and challenging race for everyone.

Liam Adams finished the best of the Australians in 31st position in a time of 2:16.12 while Michael Shelley stopped the clock at 2:18.06 in 47th spot.

In a mark of true Aussie spirit, Adams waited at the finishing line for both Shelley and Westcott to finish, so they could celebrate the milestone as a trio.

Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge won gold in a time 2:08.44 from Etheopian Feyisa Lilesa and American Galen Rupp.