Will information be damaged? That’s the large query earlier than this yr’s London Marathon.
Race director Hugh Brasher declared the occasion’s forty fifth version had “the best elite fields within the historical past of the London Marathon” after a stellar line-up was introduced in January.
Regardless of the late withdrawal of girls’s world file holder Ruth Chepngetich and 2024 champion Peres Jepchirchir, the ladies’s race nonetheless options the second and third quickest athletes of all time.
That features Sifan Hassan, considered one of 4 reigning Olympic and Paralympic marathon champions contesting this yr’s occasion, who returns for the primary time since her exceptional comeback victory on debut in 2023.
Two of the 5 quickest males in historical past line up within the males’s race, led by file four-time champion Eliud Kipchoge, whereas half marathon world file holder Jacob Kiplimo will make his eagerly anticipated debut over 26.2 miles.
In the meantime, the elite wheelchair occasions function Swiss athletes Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner – the world and course file holders.
So who will win – and can they safe a bit of historical past and a profitable bonus?
A course file within the males’s (2:01:25) or ladies’s (2:16:16) elite fields is price a further $25,000 (£19,000), whereas anybody breaking a world file (2:00:35 males, 2:16:16 ladies) will obtain $125,000 (£94,000).
