Jacob Kiplimo is set for “the most fascinating marathon debut ever”, according to London Marathon event director Hugh Brasher.
A sub-two-hour marathon on the streets of London on Sunday (April 27), Brasher says, is not impossible. Equally, Kiplimo might find experienced marathoners such as Eliud Kipchoge, Tamirat Tola and Alex Mutiso too hot to handle over 26.2 miles.
Kiplimo demolished the world half-marathon record with 56:41 in Barcelona two months ago. But this weekend he will take a step into the unknown over double the distance.
“It is the most fascinating debut ever,” says Brasher. “We have no idea what he will do on the day. His best half-marathon time is far quicker than Eliud’s best (59:25).
Yet Brasher warns: “Eliud has more of a diesel engine who can chug and chug at an incredible speed. Can Jacob do this? We don’t know. Can he be the first athlete to run inside two hours in a race? Yes. But who knows what will happen. We’ll find out on Sunday.”
Whatever the result, Brasher adds: “London Marathon is harder to win than the Olympic marathon.”
Jacob Kiplimo (Daniel Meumann for Sportmedia.es)
Of course, Olympic titles are not to be sniffed at entirely and the 45th edition of the London Marathon is proud to feature four reigning Olympic and Paralympic champions – Tola, Sifan Hassan, Tola, Catherine Debrunner and Marcel Hug – this weekend plus defending men’s champion Mutiso and marathon legend Kipchoge.
Brits racing include another exciting debutante, Eilish McColgan, together with Charlotte Purdue, Rose Harvey, Mahamed Mahamed and Phil Sesemann, while David Weir and Eden Rainbow-Cooper are among the domestic hopes in the wheelchair races. There is also much anticipation in seeing how Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee will fare on his marathon debut.
Most of the pre-race speculation will focus on Kiplimo, though. The 24-year-old is the reigning world cross-country champion and has won Olympic and World Championship medals over 10,000m on the track, but more importantly the Ugandan obliterated the world half-marathon record in February.
READ MORE: Jacob Kiplimo – lighting the spark
Mutiso knows how to win on this course, though, with a 2:04:01 victory in London 12 months ago and a 2:03:11 PB from Valencia in 2023.
Alexander Mutiso (LM Events)
Tola is a supreme championship competitor – with 2024 Olympic and 2022 world marathon titles – but he has also enjoyed several podium places at the World Marathon Majors events, notably winning in New York in 2023.
Kipchoge, meanwhile, has enjoyed four victories in London and his best time is 2:01:09 from Berlin in 2022 in addition to breaking two hours at the INEOS 1:59 Challenge in Vienna in 2019. At the age of 40, however, is he past his best? Certainly last year he looked a shadow of his former self as he finished only 10th in Tokyo in March and then dropped out of the Olympic marathon in August.
Tamirat Tola (Getty)
Another big contender on Sunday is Sabastian Sawe of Kenya, who ran the fifth-fastest time in history when he won the 2024 Valencia Marathon in 2:02:05 on his debut over the 26.2-mile distance.
Further men’s entries include reigning Berlin Marathon champion and 2:03:17 runner Milkesa Mengesha of Ethiopia and Timothy Kiplagat of Kenya, the latter of whom ran 2:02:55 to finish second at the 2024 Tokyo Marathon.
Abdi Nageeye from the Netherlands, the reigning New York City Marathon champion, is one of several national marathon record-holders in the men’s field with his PB of 2:04:45, while others include Germany’s Amanal Petros (2:04:58), Norway’s Sondre Moen (2:05:48), Australia’s Andrew Buchanan (2:06:22) and Denmark’s Jacob Sommer Simonsen (2:07:51). Italy’s half-marathon record-holder, Yeman Crippa, is also among those heading to London.
Phil Sesemann leads a group with Mahamed Mahamed (LM Events)
When it comes to the British challengers, Mahamed will hope to improve on his fourth place from last year and his 2:07:05 best after a six-week training stint in Morocco where he did a lot of his running under floodlights late at night after fasting due to Ramadan.
The consistent Sesemann is a London regular and was the leading Brit home in the race on his debut in 2021. His best is 2:08:02, which he set in Seville to qualify for last year’s Olympics.
In addition, look out for Jonny Mellor, Dewi Griffiths, Weynay Ghebresilasie, Jake Smith and Luke Caldwell, whereas debutant Yee is joined by first-time marathoners Jack Rowe, Jonathan Davies and Jacob Allen.
Eliud Kipchoge and Sifan Hassan
In the women’s race, Hassan will surely enjoy great roadside support courtesy of her stirring victory in London in 2023 when she bounced back from a mid-race stop-and-stretch to win on The Mall in 2:18:33.
The Dutch athlete then impressed at the Paris Olympics by winning 5000m and 10,000m bronze followed by a dramatic marathon victory.
Rivals on Sunday include Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia, the two-time Berlin Marathon women’s champion and Olympic Games silver medallist behind Hassan last August, whose personal best of 2:11:53 is the second fastest of all time for women.
Sifan Hassan and Tigist Assefa (Getty)
There is also Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya, the 2021 London Marathon champion, together with Megertu Alemu of Ethiopia, both of whom have run sub-2:17 with 2:16:24 and 2:16:34 respectively. Finally, Uganda is also represented with Stella Chesang owning a 2:18:26 PB.
Much interest surrounds McColgan’s debut although after an injury-hit past couple of years the expectations are not as high as they were when she originally signed up for the race in 2023.
Eilish McColgan (Graham Smith)
The multiple British record-holder has adjusted her goals accordingly and is going for Steph Twell’s Scottish record of 2:26:40 together with the family record held by her mother, Liz, of 2:26:52.
The 34-year-old will be hoping to finish first Brit home, too, which won’t be easy given that experienced marathoner Purdue has a best time of 2:22:17, whereas Harvey has run 2:23:21 and is bouncing back from her gruelling Olympic experience where she finished despite a broken femur.
In addition, Phily Bowden will be aiming to improve her best of 2:25:47, whereas Holly Archer is making her marathon debut after combining running with Hyrox in the build up.
There will be some familiar faces temporarily at the front of various groups, too, as pacemakers include Brits such as Samantha Harrison, Amy-Eloise Neale, Hugo Milner, Ben Connor and Charlie Wheeler.
As with any big race, there have been a few drop-outs in recent weeks since the fields were originally announced and they include world record-holder Ruth Chepngetich, defending women’s champion Peres Jepchirchir, Olympic fourth-placer Emile Cairess and fellow Brit Marc Scott, plus Ethiopian legend Kenenisa Bekele.
Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner (LM Events)
In the wheelchair categories, Manuela Schar of Switzerland, the three-time London Marathon champion, Susannah Scaroni of the United States and Madison de Rozario of Australia will all do battle with Catherine Debrunner in the women’s race while Daniel Romanchuk of the United States, the reigning TCS New York City Marathon champion, will be challenging Marcel Hug and David Weir in the men’s wheelchair race.
Both Scaroni and Hug are coming off Boston Marathon victories earlier this week.
With gender in sport being such a contentious issue right now, London Marathon says when “competition” is involved – from elite races through to age-group performances – there will be stringent checks over an athlete’s biological sex at birth. However, runners in the mass race will not undergo any checks and therefore an unknown number of transgender runners is likely to take part.
In total an estimated 56,000 runners are expected to finish on Sunday. Add a few thousand more from the Mini London Marathon on Saturday and it amounts to an incredible weekend festival of running.
READ MORE: 10 marathon tips from a prolific London finisher
Brasher says the event has not yet reached its ceiling when it comes to the number of participants and indeed there are ambitious goals to increase the number of Mini Marathoners to 50,000 by 2030.
The event works with crowd modelling expert Marcel Altenburg, Transport for London and the Met Police when it comes to working out how many runners it can accommodate on the roads and the necessary security measures related to such a huge event. “The work we have done,” says Brasher, “means that this year’s event with an estimated 56,000 finishers will be less crowded than in 2019 when we had 42,000 finishers.”
A world record-breaking 840,318 people entered the ballot for a place in the 2025 London Marathon, making it easily the world’s most popular marathon.
Starting times – Sunday April 27Elite wheelchairs – 8:50amElite women – 9:05amElite men – 9:35am
The races are covered live on BBC but look out for AW’s comprehensive weekend coverage with news, reports, photos and interviews on our website and social media channels.
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