2024 TCS London Marathon

London Marathon Live Updates And More On Sunday

London Marathon Live Updates And More On Sunday

The TCS London Marathon begins at 4 a.m. EST as some of the best runners in the world compete in the United Kingdom. Follow the race live on FloTrack.

Apr 21, 2024 by Cory Mull
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Alexander Mutiso Munyao and Peres Jepchirchir claimed wins in the TCS London Marathon on Sunday. For more updates, check our live updates below.

The London Marathon is ready go! Almost a week after the Boston Marathon, the season continues Sunday with the next Abbott World Marathon Major. We're going to be here at FloTrack updating you as the race progresses. You can also hit us up on Twitter

Thousands of runners -- a record 50,000 in fact -- are taking to the streets in the United Kingdom and we are going to be here breaking down the elite races, which will feature Tigst Assefa, Brigid Kosgei, Ruth Chepngetich on the women's side and Kenyaenisa Bekele, Mosinet Geremew and Alexander Mutiso Munyao on the men's side. In the wheelchair race, Marcel Hug is back into the mix after taking the win at Boston less than a week ago.

Who are the Americans to watch? On the women's side, Susanna Sullivan enters with the top seed from the U.S. in 2:24:27, while Brian Shrader is the top dog on the men's side with his 2:09:46. 

You can live track runners throughout Sunday's race and also follow the marathon leaderboard as it gets underway.

Tokyo Olympics gold medal winner Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya will be a major contender. She finished third in the race in 2023 and has wins in the Boston Marathon (2022) and the New York Marathon (2021).

On the men's side, Leul Gebresilase and Tamirat Tola will be among the favorites to win. Last year's London Marathon winner Kelvin Kiptum of Ethiopia died in car accident in Kenya in February. The London Marathon will honor Kiptum before the race. 


First Things First

3:00 a.m. -- The wheelchair races are up first, and hey, we have a major player in the mix here with Sweden star Marcel Hug, who is fresh off his win at Boston on Monday. 

He set a course record at Boston and took home some significant prize money and now he'll be up against some of the same athletes, including American Daniel Romanchuk, who finished second behind him.

Romanchuk, Hug and Great Britain's David Weir are off to the lead after the first 5K in 10:07.

On the women's side, reigning Boston champ Eden Rainbow-Cooper might be the favorite here, and she's in the mix, though she's trailing right now after 5K at 11:45.

Swedish wheelchair athlete Catherine Debrunner is front in 11:32 while her fellow country woman, Manuela Schar is right beside her. 

The Women's Race Is Off

(Just an FYI for you, our readers. It's 3 a.m. here in Texas, so we will be keeping track of the race via Central Standard Time. No rest for the weary, right? So that's how we'll break down what we're seeing at the time breakdowns) 

3:25 a.m. CST -- The women are ready to go. We are off! Could get get a marathon record today? That's quite possible. Tigst Assefa broke the world record at Berlin last year and will be running for the first time since on Sunday. The course record is 2:15:25 and was let set by Paula Radcliffe. Michelle Sammet, a track and field sports commentator, will be one of the commentators on Sunday. 

3:27 a.m. -- It's just a small moment since the race began, but we're seeing a lot of pink and yellow -- which are the pace makers, as we're finding out. This early group is reminiscent of Boston's women's pack, which stuck together through 20 miles. I don't know if that will be the strategy again -- London is a faster course. But right now, the tactics are off to the races. 

3:30 a.m. -- We've hit the 10K mark in the men's wheelchair race. American Daniel Romanchuk and Hug remain steadfast in the front at 20:21, while Great Britain's David Weir has lost a second. On the women's side, Sweden's Manual Schar has made up seven seconds on the second-place competitor here, an American, Tatyana McFadden.

3:36 p.m. -- Michelle Sammet is commenting that she thinks the timing mats aren't picking up the women's pack, which we'll keep an eye on. The commentators also mentioned there's serious money up for grabs for the best flying 400 meters here

3:38 a.m. -- The men's wheelchair race is intense right now! Four men are in the mix as we're past the 15K mark right now. Japan's Tomoki Suzuki and Great Britain's David Weir are right back in the pack.

 3:41 a.m. -- "We've lost Suzuki, right? ...Ahh, there he is," says Sammet. A bit of a sneak attack on the stream. 

3:43 a.m. -- One key ingredient during the race today? The dotted blue lines on the course. Those markers were implemented by race organizers to give competitors the shortest possible route during the marathon. That's the ideal tangent to take. Right now, the wheelchair athletes are the first to attack this course, so we're getting a sense of how they're approaching it. 

3:45 a.m. -- An update on the women's wheelchair. We are 15K down and Catherine Debrunner still isn't picking up on the mats. Sweden's Manuela Schar and the U.S.'s Tatyana McFadden have made up a second on Australia's Madison de Rozario. They're through in 35:53, which is second and third. We're being told the next miles are "more technical," so could some moves be made? 

3:48 a.m. -- The flying 400m is ready to go ... DOWN past the Tower Bridge. 

3:54 a.m. -- Catherine Debrunner finally picked up on the timing mats and she is crushing it right now through 20K, leading by a full two minutes and 23 seconds in 46:08. Yikes! The next closest competitor is Sweden's Manuela Schar, who crossed 20K in 48:31. 

On the men's side, we have Marcel Hug through the half marathon point in 44:26. He's made up a second on Weir and Romanchuk.

3:56 a.m. -- OK, first timing update on the women. Through 5K, we have Tigst Assefa, the world marathon record-holder, out in front with the front pack mostly through in 15:44. Brigid Kosgei, Ruth Chepngetich and Peres Jepchirchir are all with her, along with a slew of others. The first drink station? Apparently chaos! 

The First Look At The Elite Men

4:00 a.m. -- The men are finally underway in London. Best singlet? Maybe the Nike athletes. That Nike kit has shades of orange and white and is very leafy-looking. Adidas? It's very yellow, or maybe gold. We saw this at Boston. 

4:01 a.m. -- These overheard shots are legit. Check out that final wave of runners, the men here in London. Just a sea of runners. 

4:03 a.m. -- An update on the women marathoners. We've hit the 10K point and right now it looks like the front pack is nine runners strong, led by Tigst Assefa, who crosses the split mat at 31:26. "That takes some running, doesn't it?" Sammet says. The estimated finish as we stand right now is 2:12, which would be a minute off the world record. But that is no doubt fast, ridiculously fast for the marathon. We'll see how this shakes out. But a record day is still fully in the picture here. 

4:08 a.m. -- Pretty spot-on commentary here. If your'e not bold enough from the start, the commentators said, you're out of the race. "Marathoning has changed," they said. That's putting it lightly. 

4:12 a.m. -- Brigid Kosgei is wincing after a turn. A nice catch by the commentators. We're not yet through 15K yet. It's still really early, but could this fast pace be breaking some athletes early on? Assefa takes a drink at the water break and hands it to the pacer-maker, who's she running off the shoulder with. What a great, small gesture. 

4:17 a.m. -- Let's get you, dear reader, an update on the men. We have our first 5K split and we have a group of 12 men who have come through in 14:37, led by Dawit Wolde. The next closest competitor is 10 seconds back, and then another pack has formed 13 seconds back from there, roughly 26 seconds on the leaders. Tamirat Tola is among those men in the front group, along with Kenenisa Bekele. American Brian Schrader is 18th through the first marker. 

4:22 a.m. -- The expected finishing time has move back a minute for the women, but they are still rolling through 15K. They're at a predicted finish of 2:13:55, with Tigst Assefa still leading. The wincing Brigid Kosgei is still there, followed by reigning Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir. The front group of women are nine strong. 

4:26 a.m. -- The men are cruising as we inch closer and closer to the 10K point. The pace makers are doing their job, workmanlike, a very relaxed environment right now. 

The Marathon Is Only Beginning Through 60 Minutes

4:29 a.m. -- The women are past the hour-marker and have run that iconic Tower Bridge. With us at 64 minutes and counting right now, the women are now in "move territory." We could begin to start to see this pack start to surge in crucial moments here. At 20K, Tigst Assefa, Tigist Ketema and Peres Jepchirchir are sidled up around one another at 1-2-3. A pack of eight remains strong.

4:34 a.m. -- Oh, how do these things fly by. Swedish wheelchair superstar Marcel Hug is already nearly finished and heading toward the finish line. Over the second half he broke away from Daniel Romanchuk by 30-plus seconds. Meanwhile, Catherine Debrunner is well on the chase pack, with a two-minute plus lead.

 

4:36 a.m. -- Finishing times are in. Hug won in a time of 1:28:35, Romanchuk was second in 1:29:06 and Great Britain's David Weir was third in 1:29:58. The winner's pot for the wheelchair athletes? $55K! Not bad. Hug is crushing it right now. 

4:38 a.m. -- An update on the men's marathon through 10K. Tamirat Tola is now leading a pack of 12 through the marker in 29:03. That second 5K was crossed in 14:28. American Brian Shrader has moved up a place over that stretch in 17th.

4:45 a.m. -- Catherine Debrunner only started marathoning in 2022, but she won her second women's wheelchair marathon race in London on Sunday with a dominance that was never really challenged. She crossed the line in 1:38:55 and by her last split was nearly six minutes up on the next closest racer. 


4:49 a.m. -- The women's race is heating up. We past the half marathon marker in 1:07:04 and now we're through 25K. The front pack has slimmed down to seven women as they crossed the mat in 1:19:38. The world marathon record-holder, Tigst Assefa, remains fully in control, but this could be a tight race at the end with Peres Jepchirchir, who remains in the hunt. Brigid Kosgei, who was grimacing earlier, has dropped nine seconds from the last split. 

4:56 a.m. -- The men's marathon is picking up. The lead group has trimmed to 12 and they are through the 15K marker through 43:41, with Addiso Gobena ostensibly out in the No. 1 position on the leaderboard, but Tamirat Tola seems to be the man who's the favorite right now. Kenenisa Bekele is a bit tucked in, but he's there, too. 

5:00 a.m. -- So the men are quite speedy right now. Sammet is telling us we're 11 seconds faster than the meet record that the late Kelvin Kiptum ran last year in 2:01:25. We're at 58:20 through the 20K split. 

5:04 a.m. -- The men hit the half marathon split at 1:01:29, and we have 10 men in the lead pack. The women, meanwhile, are through 30K and now we only have four women together with a little more than seven miles to go. Brigid Kosgei has been dropped by about 47 seconds.

5:18 a.m. -- Only three spots on the podium and four women, as Sammet reaffirms. The race continues through 30K with four women taking on the front pack. This will be a critical juncture for Tigst Assefa, who now enters the tough miles of the marathon. The world marathon record-holder has to be the favorite to pull away here, though. 

5:20 a.m. -- At the 35K juncture, it feels like the women are assessing one another in the front. Peres Jepchirchir, Megertu Alemu, Joyciline Jepkosgei and TIgst Assefa are the podium contenders here. Now, who will take the final tape? It will take one final surge to get it done. We were at 1:52:48 at the marker. 

5:28 a.m. -- Let's get back to the men. Now we're seeing a slight surge at 30K. Three men have formed a two-second gap, and it's Tamirat Tola, one of the early favorites, sidled up next to Kenenisa Bekele and Milkesa Mengesha at 1:27:20 for the split time. Now, the next four men are only four seconds back. But something is beginning to happen here. "We've lost the pace maker, and this is where the race starts," the commentator says. 

We're Heading Into Winning Time Territory

5:36 a.m. -- It's 40K and to the finish for the women. We're still at four women. Tigst Assefa has to feel like she has to make a move on Peres Jepchirchir here. The women are joined by Megertu Alemu, all through the marker at 2:09:13. There is approximately seven more minutes of running left. 

5:39 a.m. -- A mile left. We're being told the women's only marathon world record is probably going down here. Some sprint surges are sprinkling in. No one is going all-in though. They're shoulder to shoulder!


5:42 a.m. -- She waited until the very, very last moments to take on the race, and it was Peres Jepchirchir, the Olympic champion, who surged away from Tigst Assefa in the final 400 meters to win the London Marathon in 2:16:16. It was a new women's only marathon world record, passing Mary Keitany's 2:17:01 from 2017. Assefa was second in 2:16:23 while Joyciline Jepkosgei was third in 2:16:24. The first woman left out of the podium? That is Megertu Alemu, who was fourth in 2:16:34.

5:46 a.m. -- Back to the men. Kenenisa Bekele, who has not won London, has made the move. Only Alexander Mutiso Munyao has gone with him, and they are through 35K in 1:42:07. Three seconds back is Milkesa Mengesha at 1:42:10, while Tamirat Tola is now out of the picture and 24 seconds back. 

5:57 a.m. -- It's not reflected in the leaderboard yet, but we're watching as Alexander Mutiso Munyao has broken away from Bekele, who has backed off after pulling away over the last big K split. 

6:01 a.m. -- At 40K, we're on to the finish line from here. Alexander Mutiso Munyao has put down the hammer, forging a six-second lead on Bekele as he can secure the win in just a few minutes. He's on pace for somewhere-abouts 2:03:30.


6:06 a.m. -- Alexander Mutiso Munyao is your London Marathon champion and a first time winner with his finishing effort of 2:04:01. Kenenisa Bekele measured the marathon distance pretty well, and he was just 14 seconds back in 2:04:15.

6:07 a.m. -- All of Britain -- specifically the commentators -- is going wild for their guy Emily Cairess, who finishes third in 2:06:46; he went from 13th at the half marathon point to third overall. He was back 81 seconds at that point, which is pretty crazy to think about. 

6:15 a.m. -- And our final update will be fitting. Let's hear about the top American! Brian Shrader moved up to 10th overall, finishing in 2:10:50. He was 17th at the half marathon point.

How To Watch The London Marathon 2024

For those in the United States, the 2024 London Marathon is being broadcast live on FloTrack. The start time for coverage will be announced soon. 

FloTrack also will provide results, editorial content and more.

 2024 London Marathon Course Map

Here is the map:

Results For The 2024 London Marathon

Results for the 2024 London Marathon will be available here.

The winner of each elite race this year will take home £43,500 (approximately $55,142 USD).

Past Results For The London Marathon

What happened at the London Marathon in 2023

See more: Full Replay | Results

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