At 40 years of age the Alectown product was the oldest member of Australia’s Olympic team and posted an impressive time at his debut Games.

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 after the marathon.

“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.

When at Dubbo earlier this year as part of the organising team for the Greater Dubbo Fun Run, Westcott was not even certain of a place at the Games.

He achieved a qualifying time at the 2015 Berlin Marathon but it was a nervous wait as Australian runners had up until April 24 to better that time and steal Westcott’s spot.

But Westcott, who spent the majority of his childhood playing sport in Parkes, made the team and on Sunday night he was cheered on by his three children, who were wearing ‘Go Dad’ t-shirts at their grandmother’s farm at Alectown.

In the marathon, 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 dominated the race and won gold in a time 2:08.44