Joyciline Jepkosgei and Sisay Lemma win epic races at the 2021 Virgin Money London Marathon

Despite a slow start in the first kilometers of the women’s race, it quickly began to get faster at around three kilometers. The first 5km was crossed in 16:21, then the 10km point was crossed in 32:42. A large pack kept together up to around the 30km point when five runners began to open some gap ahead of the rest. There were two Kenyans; Joyciline Jepkosgei and Brigid Kosgei, two Ethiopians; Degitu Azimeraw and Ashete Bekere, and one Israeli; Lonah Salpeter.

Kosgei was the first to drop back from the leading pack at the 35km point, and it was as though Jepkosgei seeing that she was the only Kenyan remaining with the leaders decided to break away at the front. She soon left them trailing her in a single file.

Despite the two Ethiopians occasionally regrouping and chasing after her, Jepkosgei managed to hold on to the lead till she crossed the finish line in an amazing time of 2:17:43. The two Ethiopians followed; Azimeraw taking second in 2:17:58 and Bekere taking third in 2:18:18.

The world record holder, Kosgei overtook Salpeter to take 4th place as Salpeter settled in 5th as all the top five runners impressively finished the marathon in under 2:19:00.

The men’s race was bound to be unpredictable given the same level that all the top runners seemed to have been. It was so hard for the leading pack to be broken in the first half of the race.

And then, there were four…photo courtesy of Virgin Money London Marathon communications

But at around the 30km point, it was almost following the same script used in the women’s race as there were five runners at the lead. This was after Titus Ekiru had suddenly clutched his right thigh, pulled out of the race momentarily, tried to run again, and then pulled out completely before reaching the 30km mark.

Sisay Lemma takes charge! photo courtesy of Virgin Money London Marathon communications

At the lead were Vincent Kipchumba, Birhanu Legese, Evans Chebet, Mosinet Geremew and Sisay Lemma.

Lemma, who had been patiently running behind the leading pack all through the race, suddenly sprang to the front as they approached the 40km point and continued to build a gap ahead of them. He went ahead to win the race in 2:04:01. Kipchumba managed to defend his runner-up position from last year as he came second in 2:04:28. Geremew completed the podium in 2:04:41.