The response to the tragic events at last Monday’s Boston Marathon was emphatic as hundreds of thousands lined the route of the Virgin London Marathon, preceded by 30 seconds of silence in honour of the bombing victims.
Many of the 36,000 runners set off from Blackheath wearing black ribbons, with an estimated 650,000 spectators lining the 26.2-mile route.
The finish saw a happy return for 2010 winner Tsegaye Kebede who pulled away from Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai with 800 metres remaining. The Ethiopian, who controversially was not selected for the London Olympics, clocked two hours 06 minutes 04 seconds breaking the recent Kenyan domination of the race ahead of Mutai’s 2:06.33. Ethiopia also took third place in the shape of Ayele Abshero timed at 2:06.57.
Two-time Scottish cross-country champion Derek Hawkins was the leading GB runner to finish in 13th clocking 2:16.5, outside his marathon debut time of 2:14.04 set at last October’s Frankfurt event. The Kilbarchan athlete should, however, have cemented his place in the GB team for this summer’s Moscow World Championships and the Scottish team for Glasgow 2014.
Double Olympic champion Mo Farah dropped out 60 minutes into the race having maintained pace with the leading group, a planned effort to gain experience before contesting the event next year.
Farah said: “There was an incredible amount of support the whole way, I never thought there would be as many people as that today. The biggest challenge for me was not the pace but picking up drinks, I made a mess of it. I’ve learned a lot it was a good practice. Next year I’ll do the whole race but concentrate on track 5km and 10km this year.”
There was early drama in the women’s elite race as both lead runners and wheelchair athletes converged on a water station at the 15km mark where Olympic champion Tiki Gelana (Ethiopia) was the major casualty, falling heavily on her hip.
Having hauled herself up and caught up with the leading pack, the Ethiopian later fell off the pace gamely struggling to the finish timed in 2:36.55. Meanwhile, Olympic silver medallist Priscah Jeptoo pulled away from Kenyan colleague Edna Kiplagat at the 21-mile point to go on to victory in two hours 20 minutes 15 seconds.
World champion Kiplagat followed home in 2:21.32 with Yukiko Akaba (Japan) in third in 2:24.43.
Leeds-based Scot Susan Partridge excelled to place ninth in 2:30.46, three minutes inside her personal best and also inside the qualifying time of 2:31 for this summer’s World Championships. GB colleague Amy Whitehead placed 13th in 2:34.14.
Over-40 veteran Hayley Haining (Kilbarchan) was inside the Glasgow 2014 qualifying time with 2:36.52 placing 98th overall in the mass field, the leading female.
Former Dundee United football player and Courier columnist Christian Dailly was timed at 3:06.26. The 39-year old, now turned athlete and coach at Chelmsford AC, was running to raise funds for Maggie’s Centre, Dundee.
Newburgh adventurer Mark Beaumont clocked 3:32.19.
There was disappointment for multi-medalled Paralympian David Weir in the wheelchair race. Leading a group of eight turning into the Mall finish Weir could not match the finishing pace of Australian Kurt Fearnley who sprinted to the line in 1:31.29 sharing a time with runner up Marcel Hug (Switzerland).
Weir placed fifth in 1:31.31. Tatyana McFadden (USA) claimed the female prize in 1:46.02 with GB’s Shelly Woods fifth (1:50.44).
Meggan Dawson Farrell set a new Scottish wheelchair marathon record with 2.18.23 for 10th place.