Kenya’s Amos Kipruto claims dominant victory at TCS London Marathon

After methodically dropping his competition, including the world’s second-fastest marathoner, Kenenisa Bekele, one by one, and with less than 10 minutes of running left, Amos Kipruto threw in a 4:36 mile, dropping the two runners who would finish second and third and all but ensuring his victory at the 42nd London Marathon (his third time racing there). He was 17 seconds ahead at the 40 km mark, and went on to complete the win in 2:04:38, well off his PB, but still a dominant win for the 30-year-old Kenyan.

INCREDIBLE RUN! 🇰🇪@AmoskiprutoS1 wins his first TCS London Marathon after a brilliant breakaway.#LondonMarathon #WeRunTogether pic.twitter.com/t5l8USpuws

— TCS London Marathon (@LondonMarathon) October 2, 2022

Leul Gebrsilasie, now of the UK, finished second, in 2:05:12, and Belgium’s Bashir Abdi, the Olympic and world bronze medallist (and European record holder in the marathon), was third again today in London.

The defending champion, Sisay Lemma, had dropped off the lead pack with only about 5 km left, and ended up finishing in seventh place, in 2:07:26. Bekele fell off the lead before Lemma, but ended up finishing two spots ahead of him, in fifth, with a time of 2:05:53–a new 40+ world record. (The previous record was held by Ayad Landasseem of Spain at 2:06:25.)

He'll have wanted to win, but Kenenisa Bekele just set a masters (40+) world record of 2:05:53 to finish 5th in the 2022 London Marathon. pic.twitter.com/0cVzgUXbGx

— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) October 2, 2022

Kipruto, 30, finished second to world record-holder Eliud Kipchoge at this year’s Tokyo Marathon in a personal best of 2:03:13 and was considered to be a strong contender for the win today. (Kipruto was third at the 2019 world championships in Doha, but dropped out of the Olympic marathon in Sapporo.) Berhanu Legese was also considered a potential favourite (he is the third-fastest all-time marathoner in the world behind Kipchoge and Bekele, with a PB of 2:02:48 from the 2019 Berlin Marathon), but he had not raced this year and was one of the first men to be dropped from the lead pack of seven, around 30 km in.

Brett Robinson of Australia scored a top eight finish, in 2:09:52 (a one-minute PB), and Philip Sesemann of the UK was 10th, in 2:12:10, also a PB.

Top 10 results

1. Amos Kipruto KEN 2:04:39
2. Leul Gebrsilasie UK 2:05:12
3. Bashir Abdi BEL 2:05:19
4. Kinde Atanaw ETH 2:05:27
5. Kenenisa Bekele ETH 2:05:53
6. Berhanu Legese ETH 2:06:11
7. Sisay Lemma ETH 2:07:26
8. Brett Robinson AUS 2:09:52
9. Weynay Ghebrsilasie UK 2:11:57
10. Philip Sesemann UK 2:12:10

Wheelchair course records go down

The men’s wheelchair race was a duel between defending champion Marcel Hug of Switzerland and the American, Daniel Romanchuk. Hug managed to come out on top once again, smashing the course record; his compatriot Catherine Debrunner did the same on the women’s side, only a week after her victory at the Berlin Marathon. The UK’s David Weir, 43, was third, in his 23rd consecutive London Marathon.

Yehualaw smashes the women’s race

A few minutes earlier, Ethiopia’s Yalemzerf Yehualaw had demonstrated similar dominance in the women’s race, dropping defending champion Joyciline Jepkosgei and, at 23, becoming the youngest woman ever to win in London. Her time of 2:17:26 was only 25 seconds off the women-only world record set here by Mary Keitany in 2017. (The men’s and women’s starts are staggered in London, and the women do not have the advantage of male pacers, which is why there is a separate world record for women-only races.) Earlier this year, Yehualaw’s 2:17:23 in Hamburg was the fastest-ever debut by a woman; this was only her second marathon.