The London Marathon is a street race contested over the distance of 42.195 km in April in the capital of England, by thousands of athletes, professional and amateur, since 1981. In addition to being one of the five most essential marathons in the world, with a total prize pool of about $1 million, it is also a major annual sports celebration of the city, broadcast live on television to several countries.
| The London Marathon | |
|---|---|
| Sport type | Athletics |
| Category | World Marathon Majors Marathon |
| Creation date | 1981 |
| Periodicity | Annual (in April) |
| Location | London, United Kingdom |
| Organizer | The London Marathon Limited |
| Status of participants | Amateur and professional |
| Sponsors | Tata Consultancy Services, Virgin Money UK, Flora, NutraSweet, ADT Inc., Mars, Inc., Gillette. |
| Website | london-marathon.co.uk |
First organized in 1981 by Chris Brasher, journalist and Olympic champion of the 3000 m hurdles at Melbourne 1956, and the Welsh athlete John Disley, it has over the years become a gigantic race contested by more than 35,000 athletes, with a great tradition of supporting charity in the country, raising around £450 million in donations in the thirty years of its existence, and is cited in the Guinness Book of Records as the annual fundraising event for charity, with a total of £47.2 million raised in 2009 alone. Today it is run by Britain’s David Bedford, a former world record holder in the 10,000m, as race director and Nick Bitel as chief executive, and sponsored by the Virgin conglomerate, officially named Virgin London Marathon. The BBC broadcasts it live all over the world.
With one of the highest technical levels in the world, due to the presence of great international runners attracted by the high cash prizes offered by the organizers, the race is held on a flat and fast course – responsible for some world records already obtained there – around the River Thames, passing through several historical points of the city such as the British Parliament, Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London.
Despite the participation of the greatest marathoners of the world circuit in each edition, it is the human mass of amateur runners that gives the air of celebration to the competition. Thousands of them, from dozens of different countries, characterized as characters from the funniest to the strangest, such as fruits or with costumes of more than 4 m in height, participate in the race carrying mugs where they collect donations given by the public later dedicated to charity by the organization of the race and are the main responsible for attracting almost a million spectators to the streets to encourage and cheer for the competitors.
As an additional attraction, the runners who compete in the race have the privilege of participating in the only marathon in the world disputed in two hemispheres, western and eastern, because the city of London is cut by the Greenwich Meridian, crossed several times during the course.
Historic of the London Marathon
In 1979, after participating in the New York City Marathon, Chris Brasher and John Disley decided to create a competition of equal magnitude in Great Britain. After returning to New York the following year to observe and learn the ins and outs of the organization and the raising of financial support for such an endeavor, in 1981 he secured a £50,000 sponsorship with Gilette, established charitable aid status for the event, and outlined six goals the race was supposed to have. hoping to replicate the success and popular participation he had seen in the United States and turn London into a city capable of hosting major street events.
The first marathon was held on March 29, 1981, and had more than 20,000 entries. 6,747 athletes were accepted and 6,255 managed to complete it. As a special opening touch, it ended in a draw after American Dick Beardsley and Norwegian Inge Simonsen crossed the finish line hand in hand after running together for much of the course. Britain’s Joyce Smith was first among women.
Since then, its size and popularity have only grown and the technical level has increased. Four world records and dozens of national records have already been broken in it. In 1983, the first category of wheelchair athletes was created and the marathon was associated with decreasing stigma around people with physical disabilities. By 2009, 746,635 athletes had raced it. In 2010, 36,549 runners crossed the finish line, the highest number in its existence.
For many years, the London Marathon and the Polytechnic Marathon, also run in the London area and existing since 1909, competed for popular preference, until in 1996 the latter ceased to exist due to the popularity of the former. In its more than thirty-year history, it has recorded the deaths of twelve runners, the most recent of which occurred in 2012, when Claire Squires, a 30-year-old hairdresser, collapsed and died halfway through.
She had just opened a page on the website JustGiving, known in the country for collecting donations of all kinds for people in need and disabled, on behalf of the charity Samaritans. Within hours of news of her death began to circulate, the value of donations on Claire’s page rose from £500 to £600,000. On the other hand, boxer Michael Watson became a national hero and the target of headlines throughout the British press when, in 2003, after being diagnosed as unable to walk again after a knockout suffered in the ring, he competed and completed the marathon in six days.
In 2018, Queen Elizabeth II kicked off the marathon, remotely through a button, from Windsor Castle. In 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was held in October, rather than the traditional month of April, and contested only by a small group of elite athletes on a 19-lap course around St. James Park, closed to the public.
The London Marathon route
The course of the race spreads across the flat area around the River Thames and is considered one of the most competitive and fastest in the world. The race starts at three separate points: the “red start” at South Greenwich Park, the “green start” at St. John’s Park and the “blue start” at Shooter’s Hill Road. The three waves of runners then converge eastwards at Charlton and meet at the height of km 4.5 at Woolwich, near the Royal Artillery Barracks.
When runners reach 10km, they pass through the Old Royal Naval College towards the dry dock of the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. Passing Surrey Quays in the Docklands, they cross Jamaica Road until they reach the half-marathon mark across Tower Bridge. Heading east again on the Highway, crossing Wapping, they pass through Limehouse and Mudchute on the Isle of Dogs, before turning into Canary Wharf. When the course reaches the residential neighborhood of Poplar, competitors race west down Poplar High Street back to Limehouse and across Commercial Road. From there, they return to The Highway, to the streets of the upper and lower Thames.
Reaching the final part of the race, the route passes in front of the Tower of London. For the last six kilometers, the London Eye appears to the eye, before the athletes turn right onto Birdcage Walk to complete the last 350 meters, with the view of Big Ben and Buckingham Palace ahead, ending the course and crossing the finish line on The Mall wide avenue in front of St James’s Palace.
Records
London is part of the World Marathon Majors, a group that brings together the largest annual marathons in the world, not only for its size and popularity but for its technical quality. Four world records have already been set in the race. The first two in the 80s, in the women’s marathon, with the Norwegians Grete Waitz (1983 – 2:25:29) and Ingrid Kristiansen (1985 – 2:21:06), the latter taking thirteen years to overcome. In 2002, Moroccan Khalid Khannouchi, then a naturalized American, lowered his previous mark, set in Chicago in 1999, to 2:05:38. The last of the world records set there was that of Britain’s Paula Radcliffe (2003 – 2:15:25), a mark so expressive among women that it remained unbeatable for sixteen years – and remains the London record – when it was broken by Kenyan Brigid Kosgei, two-time champion of the 2019 and 2020 editions of the Chicago Marathon.
The biggest winner of the event is Kenyan two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge (2015-16-18-19). Among the women, the biggest winner is Norway’s Ingrid Kristiansen, also a four-time champion (1984-85-87-88).
The London Marathon results
| Edition | Men’s winner | Nationality | Time | Women’s winner | Nationality | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1981 | Dick Beardsley Inge Simonsen |
Norway United States |
2 h 11 min 48 | Joyce Smith | United Kingdom | 2 h 29 min 57 | |
| 1982 | Hugh Jones | United Kingdom | 2 h 09 min 24 | Joyce Smith | United Kingdom | 2 h 29 min 43 | |
| 1983 | Mike Gratton | United Kingdom | 2 h 09 min 43 | Grete Waitz | Norway | 2 h 25 min 29 | |
| 1984 | Charlie Spedding | United Kingdom | 2 h 09 min 57 | Ingrid Kristiansen | Norway | 2 h 24 min 26 | |
| 1985 | Steve Jones | United Kingdom | 2 h 08 min 16 (NR) | Ingrid Kristiansen | Norway | 2 h 21 min 06 | |
| 1986 | Toshihiko Seko | Japan | 2 h 10 min 02 | Grete Waitz | Norway | 2 h 24 min 54 | |
| 1987 | Hiromi Taniguchi | Japan | 2 h 09 min 50 | Ingrid Kristiansen | Norway | 2 h 22 min 48 | |
| 1988 | Henrik Jørgensen | Danemark | 2 h 10 min 20 | Ingrid Kristiansen | Norway | 2 h 25 min 41 | |
| 1989 | Douglas Wakiihuri | Kenya | 2 h 09 min 03 | Véronique Marot | United Kingdom | 2 h 25 min 56 | |
| 1990 | Allister Hutton | United Kingdom | 2 h 10 min 10 | Wanda Panfil | Poland | 2 h 26 min 31 | |
| 1991 | Yakov Tolstikov | Soviet Union | 2 h 09 min 17 | Rosa Mota | Portugal | 2 h 26 min 14 | |
| 1992 | António Pinto | Portugal | 2 h 10 min 02 | Katrin Dörre | Germany | 2 h 29 min 39 | |
| 1993 | Eamonn Martin | United Kingdom | 2 h 10 min 50 | Katrin Dörre | Germany | 2 h 27 min 09 | |
| 1994 | Dionicio Cerón | Mexico | 2 h 08 min 53 | Katrin Dörre | Germany | 2 h 32 min 34 | |
| 1995 | Dionicio Cerón | Mexico | 2 h 08 min 30 | Małgorzata Sobańska | Poland | 2 h 27 min 43 | |
| 1996 | Dionicio Cerón | Mexico | 2 h 10 min 00 | Liz McColgan | United Kingdom | 2 h 27 min 54 | |
| 1997 | António Pinto | Portugal | 2 h 07 min 55 | Joyce Chepchumba | Kenya | 2 h 26 min 51 | |
| 1998 | Abel Antón | Spain | 2 h 07 min 57 | Catherina McKiernan | Ireland | 2 h 26 min 26 | |
| 1999 | Abdelkader El Mouaziz | Morocco | 2 h 07 min 57 | Joyce Chepchumba | Kenya | 2 h 23 min 22 | |
| 2000 | António Pinto | Portugal | 2 h 06 min 36 | Tegla Loroupe | Kenya | 2 h 24 min 33 | |
| 2001 | Abdelkader El Mouaziz | Morocco | 2 h 07 min 09 | Derartu Tulu | Ethiopia | 2 h 23 min 57 | |
| 2002 | Khalid Khannouchi | United States | 2 h 05 min 38 | Paula Radcliffe | United Kingdom | 2 h 18 min 56 | |
| 2003 | Gezahegne Abera | Ethiopia | 2 h 07 min 56 | Paula Radcliffe | United Kingdom | 2 h 15 min 25 (WR) | |
| 2004 | Evans Rutto | Kenya | 2 h 06 min 18 | Margaret Okayo | Kenya | 2 h 22 min 35 | |
| 2005 | Martin Lel | Kenya | 2 h 07 min 26 (WL) | Paula Radcliffe | United Kingdom | 2 h 17 min 42 (WL) | |
| 2006 | Felix Limo | Kenya | 2 h 06 min 39 | Deena Kastor | United States | 2 h 19 min 36 | |
| 2007 | Martin Lel | Kenya | 2 h 07 min 41 | Zhou Chunxiu | China | 2 h 20 min 38 | |
| 2008 | Martin Lel | Kenya | 2 h 05 min 15 | Irina Mikitenko | Germany | 2 h 24 min 14 | |
| 2009 | Samuel Wanjiru | Kenya | 2 h 05 min 10 (CR) | Irina Mikitenko | Germany | 2 h 22 min 11 | |
| 2010 | Tsegay Kebede | Ethiopia | 2 h 05 min 18 | Liliya Shobukhova | Russia | 2 h 21 min 59 | |
| 2011 | Emmanuel Mutai | Kenya | 2 h 04 min 39 (CR) | Mary Keitany | Kenya | 2 h 19 min 19 | |
| 2012 | Wilson Kipsang | Kenya | 2 h 04 min 44 | Mary Keitany | Kenya | 2 h 18 min 37 | |
| 2013 | Tsegay Kebede | Ethiopia | 2 h 06 min 04 | Priscah Jeptoo | Kenya | 2 h 20 min 13 | |
| 2014 | Wilson Kipsang | Kenya | 2 h 04 min 28 | Edna Kiplagat | Kenya | 2 h 20 min 21 | |
| 2015 | Eliud Kipchoge | Kenya | 2 h 04 min 42 | Tigist Tufa | Ethiopia | 2 h 23 min 32 | |
| 2016 | Eliud Kipchoge | Kenya | 2 h 03 min 05 (CR) | Jemima Sumgong | Kenya | 2 h 22 min 58 | |
| 2017 | Daniel Wanjiru | Kenya | 2 h 05 min 48 | Mary Keitany | Kenya | 2 h 17 min 01 | |
| 2018 | Eliud Kipchoge | Kenya | 2 h 04 min 27 | Vivian Cheruiyot | Kenya | 2 h 18 min 31 | |
| 2019 | Eliud Kipchoge | Kenya | 2 h 2 min 37 s (CR) | Brigid Kosgei | Kenya | 2 h 18 min 20 s | |
| 2020 | Shura Kitata Tola | Ethiopia | 2 h 05 min 41 | Brigid Kosgei | Kenya | 2 h 18 min 58 s | |
| 2021 | Sisay Lemma | Ethiopia | 2 h 04 min 01 | Joyciline Jepkosgei | Kenya | 2 h 17 min 43 s | |
| 2022 | Amos Kipruto | Kenya | 2 h 04 min 39 | Yalemzerf Yehualaw | Ethiopia | 2 h 17 min 26 s | |
| 2023 | Kelvin Kiptum | Kenya | 2 h 01 min 25 | Sifan Hassan | The Netherlands | 2 h 18 min 33 s | |
| Records and Performances
• AR: Area record Circumstances and Conditions • DNF: Did not finish |
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References (sources)
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