Elite and amateur athletes came together to complete in the London Marathon yesterday.
Alexander Mutiso Munyao, a newcomer to the iconic race, outperformed legendary long-distance runner Kenenisa Bekele to secure the men’s title. Meanwhile, Emile Cairess made history as the first British runner to reach the podium since 2018.
Kenya’s Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir also claimed victory, setting a world record time of two hours, 16 minutes, and 16 seconds in the women’s only race.
At the start of the event there was a round of applause for Kelvin Kiptum – the winner of last year’s race – who died in a car accident in February.
Plenty of famous faces took to the streets, including 71-year-old billionaire Jim Ratcliffe who ran the race in 4 hours, 30 minutes before going to Wembley to watch Manchester United take on Coventry in the FA Cup semi-finals.
Others who took part in the race included the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, singer Harry Judd, presenter Chris Evans, actress Ruth Wilson and many more.
More than 50,000 people ran the 26.2 mile course on the dry and bright day, with a few records broken for people running in costumes.
Daniel Farr (28) from Alton, Hampshire (pictured left), raised £3,149 for Young Lives vs Cancer.
He said: “It’s the first time I’ve done a marathon – I couldn’t believe I got a place. It was such a brilliant atmosphere. All the crowds are behind you, cheering you on to keep going the whole way.
“At the start of the race I met Suzie and Adam (also pictured), who were raising money for the same charity as me – so I hope they did well too.”
Elliot Harvey-Copestake (31) from Andover (pictured below) also ran his first marathon.
He said: “After my wife and I got married in 2021, we sadly went through three miscarriages.
“Unfortunately research and testing into why isn’t offered until you have suffered a miscarriage three times.
“I decided to run the London Marathon as part of “Tommy’s team” and raise as much money as possible for an amazing charity that not only offers support but are constantly campaigning and doing research to identify why pregnancy goes wrong and understand how to prevent complications and loss as well as enabling specialist care for people at their clinics, research centres and across the NHS.”
