Jemima Sumgong recovered from a fall to win the women’s London Marathon as fellow Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge retained the men’s title.
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After winning his debut in Hamburg, he finished second in Berlin later that same year and then produced further victories in Rotterdam, Chicago, London last year before going one better in the German capital with a personal best time of 2 hours 04min 00sec.
The men’s race set off at a fierce pace, on track for a world record at 10 miles, the fastest half marathon in this event’s history and a world record of 1:27:13 for 30 kilometres.
She took a tumble and hit her head approaching a drinks station near the end, but picked herself up to finish in 2:22.58 and leave 2015 victor Tigist Tufa in second, while Florence Kiplagat rounded off the podium.
“I realized I ran a world record for 30 kilometers, then between 30 and 40 I lost about 20 seconds”, Kipchoge said.
In third, Kenenisa Bekele put up a similarly gallant battle as he stayed with the leaders until the latter stages and the Ethiopian legend, who had struggled with injury in the build-up, clocked 2:06:36 as he finished a just over a minute ahead of world champion Ghirmay Ghebreselassie of Eritrea in fourth and Wilson Kipsang of Kenya, the latter finishing fifth as he saw his course record fell.
“I am happy with the time”, said Kipchoge.
“Kipchoge is head and shoulders above all the Kenyan marathon runners and he is a very strong contender to win the Olympic gold medal in Rio”, said the Iten, Kenya, based Canova, who has coached several Kenyan marathon runners over the past five years. I’ve got to applaud myself for that and not get beaten up about the seven.
“If I win it will be the third time for me, and it will be something that’s never forgotten”.
Kipchoge was even more delighted that, in a race which was effectively doubling as an Olympic trial for a stellar field of Kenyan athletes, he must have confirmed his place for Rio de Janeiro, where he will start a hot favourite.
In the women’s race Alyson Dixon and Sonia Samuels also ensured Olympic selection after going head to head for the majority of the race.
The millionth finisher in the race’s 35-year history also crossed the line on The Mall, although his or her identity will not be confirmed until the results have been studied.
“I think it’s the media that hype it up so much, I don’t think too much about it”, he told BBC Radio Five Live. “This means, along with IAAF testing, they will get a minimum of six a year”.
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Khalid Khannouchi did so back in 2002 in the men’s race, and Paula Radcliffe set her women’s world record (of 2:15:25) in London a year later.
