LONDON (Kashmir English): Tigst Assefa of Ethiopia won the 45th London Marathon in a world record for women’s-only race on Sunday.
Kenyan Sabastian Sawe grabbed the men’s title to advance his argument as the world’s top male marathoner.
Assefa, the Paris Olympic silver medalist, clocked an unofficial 2 hours, 15 minutes, 50 seconds, breaking the women’s only world record of 2:16:16 set by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir at the last year’s event.
Second fastest in London Marathon history
It’s the second-fastest women’s time in London Marathon history behind Brit Paula Radcliffe’s 2:15:25 from 2003, when she had male pacemakers.
Assefa now owns the second-fastest women’s marathon in history overall — 2:11:53 from Berlin 2023 with a male pacemaker.
The 28-year-old Assefa pulled away from Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya over the final couple of kilometres after the two set a wonderful early pace.
She said the blazing London sun helped her in smashing the record, with temperatures approaching 20 degrees Celsius by race’s end.
“Last year, I did have some problems with the cold,” said Assefa after the race was over. “My hamstring tightened up towards the end of the race. This year, the weather suited me really well, and that’s why I’m really pleased with the way the race went.”
Jepkosgei, 31, crossed second in 2:18:44. The sizzling early pace was too much for reigning Olympic marathon champion and 2024 London winner Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who fell back off the leaders around the halfway mark en route to finishing third in 2:19:00.
The 29-year-old Sawe had made a stunning marathon debut by winning in Valencia last December. He, however, pulled away from the lead pack when the others reached for bottles to refuel with about 10 kilometres to go, on his way to crossing in 2:02:27.
“So happy, this is my first time to win a major marathon, I was well prepared for this race, and that’s why it has become easy for me to win,” Sawe said. “It does now give me hope that my marathoning future will be so important to me, and it will be so easy to me.”
Uganda’s Jacob Kiplimo, who smashed the world half-marathon record in February, was second in his marathon debut in 2:03:37, while last year’s winner Kenya’s Alexander Mutiso Munyao was third in a photo finish with Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands, both crossing in 2:04:20.
Four-time champion Eliud Kipchoge was the sixth to cross the finish line. Britain’s Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee finished a highly creditable 14th on his debut.
A world record 56,000 runners were expected to participate in the 42.195-kilometre race that started at Greenwich Park, snaked along the River Thames before finishing on The Mall.
