London, April 27, 2025.
The 45th edition of the London Marathon kicked off with lovely weather, for the spectators that is.
What about the elite runners? Race day conditions were expected to be quite a challenge today: even with a cool start, mercury was expected to climb:
Wheelchair Race
Not too much excitement here: we get the expected Swiss double.
Marcel Hug won well clear in the men’s wheelchair race, already his seventh win in London.
Catherine Debrunner went for a new title and she was dominant in the women’s race. She set a new course record, and she managed to finish in the top 10 of male athletes.
Elite Women
The elite women’s field was amazingly strong today: with Ruth Chepngetich, the marathon world record holder, with Peres Jepchirchir, the world record here last year (2:16:16), and with Tigst Assefa, one of the fastest women ever, with a 2:11:53 PB.
Tigst Assefa is an Ethiopian runner, who transitioned from a great 800m specialist to marathon running.
Joyciline Jepkosgei is also a strong contender, former half marathon world record holder (1:04:51), she won the New York City Marathon on her marathon debut.
My favorite runner is of course Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands. She is an Ethiopian-born Dutch athlete, known for winning multiple Olympic medals, with an amazing range of racing, from 1500m to the marathon, including gold medals at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
However, after 1 hour, when passing Tower Bridge, Tigst Assefa and Joyciline Jepkosgei (still with their pacer) manage to create a small gap (5 seconds), and this is really exciting: can Sifan Hassan come back?
The pace is really fast halfway at 1 hr 06 min (compared to the worldrecord of 1 hr 04 min), and Tigst Assefa and Joyciline Jepkosgei can widen the gap with Sifan Hassan a little bit (10 seconds).
At 1 hr 20 min, the pacer drops out (this was a real benefit for Assefa & Jepkosgei, versus Sifan Hassan). And then it becomes clear that this is not going to be Sifan Hassan’s day, today … :-(
Assefa and Jepkosgei maintain a really fast pace! At 1 hr 40 min, Assefa and Jepkosgei are more than 1 minute ahead of Sifan Hassan, today is not going to be her day …
At the 35 km point, Assefa and Jepkosgei come in at 1 hr 52 min, and they leave Sifan Hassan more than 2 minutes behind.
With 10 km to go, Assefa attacks and creates a gap.
She seems to be heading for the big win here.
Assefa runs mile 24 in an astonishing 5:04 time … At 40 km, Assefa is 1 minute ahead of Jepkosgei, and almost 3 minutes ahead of Hassan.
Unfortunately, no new London Marathon win for Hassan (she won in 2023), she ends up 3rd. Also, no new win for Jepkosgei (she won in 2021), she takes silver.
Tigst Assefa takes victory with 2:15:50, she breaks the women’s only world record but Paula Radcliffe’s course record (which has been set with male pacemakers) remains.
Assefa came in second in London’s Marathon last year, and she was second again at the Olympics, so today is a great dayfor her!
Elite Men
This year’s men’s field was stacked with legends and rising stars.
Initially, a big group goes out with a.o. Eliud Kipchoge (still the marathon “GOAT”, at 40 years old), returning to London for the first time since 2020. Kipchoge did not finish (“DNF”) at last year’s Paris Olympics, but as he explained, he still has “races to run”.
Alexander Mutiso Munyao is the defending champion (he clocked 2:04:01 last year), and Tamirat Tola was the Olympic champion in Paris 2024.
Jacob Kiplimo is one of the most fascinating athletes to watch. This 24-year-old Ugandan comes in as the world record holder in the half marathon, having crushed the previous record with a 56:42 performance in Barcelona just two months ago.
At 15 km into the race, there is a group of 13 runners leading the pack, with Kipchoge making a strong impression.
Medal candidates like Tola, Kiplimo, etc. are in this group, as is Nageeye from the Netherlands.
Miles at 4:42 per Mile are quite fast, even if outside of world-record pace, and the second group of runners (among which Alex Yee) is more than 2 minutes behind.
Alex Yee is a British triathlete who won Olympic gold in the triathlon at Paris 2024. He is one of the most decorated Olympic triathletes, with medals in Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024.
At the 25 km point there are still 10 runners in the top group, running at a stable pace. Nageeye seems to have a great day, and especially Sebastian Sawe seems to feel great.
Sebastian Sawe is a Kenyan runner and world half marathon champion. He won the 2024 Valencia Marathon in a world-leading 2:02:05 on his marathon debut, he is now the fifth-fastest men’s marathoner of all time.
Around 1 hr 30, Kipchoge gets in trouble. So tough to see: he gets behind and needs to let go …
Of course, at 40, he’s running against all these young kids, of course :-)
And then Sawe attacks!
Nobody seems to be able to respond and he easily creates a big gap …
He seems really strong today, what a big push. Sawe runs a fantastic race.
At 40 km, he is 46 seconds ahead of Kiplimo, and 1:33 minutes ahead of Nageeye and Munyao.
Saw comes in at 2 hours & 2 minutes (2:02:27), after a fantastic race! He was running so easily today, as if it was effortless.
Kiplimo comes in second, 2 hours & 3 minutes (2:03:37), a wonderful marathon debut. We’ll see more of him!
Nageeye and Munyao sprint for the 3rd spot, and Munyao wins.
Tola is 5th and Eliud Kipchoge comes in 6th, at 2 hours & 5 minutes, he’s still one of the finest marathoners on this planet!
Alex Yee finishes in 2 hours & 11 minutes, well-done.
Mahamed Mahamed finishing 9th, that makes him the best-placed British runner, today.
Thanks for reading … and we’ll update this article as we go!
If you came across interesting things, let me know?
Kind regards,
Peter
P.S. More information on the event can be found here: TCS London Marathon | London Marathon Events
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