Ethiopian Assefa pulls away to win London Marathon

LONDON: Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa shattered the women’s-only world record in winning the 45th London Marathon on Sunday, while Kenyan Sebastian Sawe made a brilliant tactical decision to demolish a stacked men’s field en route to victory.

The 28-year-old Assefa, silver medallist in the event at last year’s Paris Olympics, pulled away from Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya over the final couple of kilometres after the two had set a blistering early pace.

She crossed the finish line in two hours, 15 minutes and 50 seconds, beating the previous women’s-only record of 2:16:16 set last year in London by Kenyan Peres Jepchirchir.

Jepkosgei, 31, finished 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.

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The 29-year-old Sawe, who made a stunning marathon debut in winning in Valencia in December, 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.

Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, who shattered the world half-marathon record in February, was second in his marathon debut in 2:03:37, while last year’s winner Alexander Mutiso Munyao took bronze in 2:04:20.

It was a Swiss double in the wheelchair events, with Marcel Hug racing to his sixth London marathon title in 1:25:25 and Catherine Debrunner winning her third women’s title in four years in 1:34:18, missing her own world record by two seconds.

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.