Filed under: Other Sports, Athletics
Emmanuel Mutai led a Kenyan clean sweep of the men's race in the Virgin London marathon - with the fourth fastest time in history.Mutai smashed his own personal best and the course record with a time of 2:04:39 to surprise strong favourite Tsegaye Kebede to re-establish his country's dominance of the London event.
Kenya dominated the women's event too with Mary Keitany cruising to victory in only her second marathon ahead of last year's champion Liliya Shobukhova and Kenya's Edna Kiplagat was third in her first attempt at the event.
Mutai underlined his claims for the 2012 Olympic title with a devastating burst in the second half of the race which ended Kebede's hopes of defending his title and achieving his pre-race ambition of setting a new world record.
The runner-up in 2010 and the runner-up in New York and at the World Championships claimed his first major marathon victory ahead of Martin Lel, who was attempting to set a record of four London victories.
Mutai's time smashed the previous best London time by 30 seconds and he said: "I am very happy because I have finished fourth twice and was second last year.
"My dreams have come true now. I have always had it in my mind to win one of the major marathons.
"I was not thinking about the time, I was only thinking of winning the race. I saw there was a chance of two hours four minutes at one stage and I tried my best, but I am just happy to win."
Lel was only entered in the event in the last couple of weeks and produced a wonderful performance with a trademark sprint to defeat Patrick Makau, with Kebede back in fifth.
Lee Merrien was the first GB athlete to finish, just ahead of Andrew Lemencello, but both finished outside the individual 2:12:00 Olympic qualifying time, but the pair managed the team qualifying time which could enable their selection for the World Championships in August.
Keitany became the fourth fastest woman in history, over a minute ahead of Russian Shobukhova and said: "I am so happy because there were some very tough athletes running.
"I was a little scared because there was the winner of last year with me, but once I got to the 21 mark I went alone because I wanted to run at my own pace and that helped."
Jo Pavey was the first GB woman athlete to cross the line in her marathon debut and recorded the seventh fastest time of any GB woman athlete - with an Olympic qualifying and World Championship qualifying time - along with GB colleague Louise Damen.
"I am thrilled to run such a race on my debut in London and I enjoyed it and learned a lot. I know what I want to do and what I need to do to improve my marathon running leading up to 2012," she said.
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