The marathon season roars ahead with Sunday’s London Marathon as Sabastian Sawe and Tigst Assefa look to defend their titles in a stacked men’s and women’s field in the final spring major of the year.
In the men’s race, Sawe will battle a loaded men’s group that includes Jacob Kiplimo, Deresa Geleta Amos Kipruto, Tamirat Tola, Amanal Petros, Geoffrey Kamworor and Joshua Cheptegei — all who have the championship fire power to block his path to the podium.
Last year Sawe bolted to a dominant 2:02:27 win — the second-fastest ever in London — that was just over a minute quicker than Kiplimo who took second. Sawe broke ahead at the 30k mark and later opened a comfortable lead to take the victory. And while he is confident he can repeat on the course on Sunday, Sawe acknowledged just how deep the men’s field is and that the pace will be aggressive.
He believes that whoever takes the win will likely have to do it in a course record and break the late Kelvin Kiptum’s 2:01:25 mark from 2023.
“I am sure with the quality of athletes coming to London it will take another fast time to win again, perhaps the type of effort the great Kelvin Kiptum put in when he set the course record in 2023.” Sawe said.
Meanwhile Assefa is a favorite to repeat and will line up alongside Joyciline Jepkosgei, Hellen Obiri, Degitu Azimeraw and Magdalena Shauri in a matchup where her 2:15:50 women’s-only world record could fall.
Assefa has wins on fast course after winning Berlin in 2022 and 2023 and could make a decisive move earlier and not face a sprint with Obiri or pull away at the 35k mark like last year’s race when she slipped past Jepkosgei. In 2025, Assefa and Jepkosgei were part of a women’s group that surged from the start alongside Sifan Hassan and Megertu Alemu. But by the halfway point, Assefa and Jepkosgei broke from the lead pack and traded strides until a fading Jepkosgei was no longer in contention for the win.
Pace groups were announced on Friday, with the men’s set featuring Sawe and Kiplimo being led on a target time of 60:30 through the half which would put them inside of Kiptum’s record. The second group will have Petros, Cheptegei and Kamworor seeking a 61:45 half a third unit will be pacing at 63:15 for the first 13.1 miles.
Three other men’s groups are set to clock 64:15, 65:00 and 67:00 at the half.
The women’s pace group will be loaded as Assefa, Jepkosgei and Obiri have requested a 67:30 half that would put them inside of Assefa’s women-only world record. A second group will be responsible for pushing the pace at a 69:00 half.
Nearly 60,000 participants will line up on Sunday as the race could expand to a two-day format in 2027 after organizers confirmed this week that they are exploring staging an event that fields 100,000 people.
Start times
3:50 a.m. – Elite wheelchair races
4:05 a.m. – Elite women
4:35 a.m. – Elite men/mass start
How To Watch
The BBC will broadcast the London Marathon with elite race coverage beginning at 3:30 a.m. on BBC One and and later moving to BBC Two at 9 a.m. In the United States, Canada and Australia, the event will be broadcast on FloTrack.
All times Eastern.
Women’s elite field
Tigst Assefa (Ethiopia) – 2:11:53
Joyciline Jepkosgei (Kenya) – 2:14:00
Hellen Obiri (Kenya) – 2:17:41
Degitu Azimeraw (Ethiopia) – 2:17:58
Magdalena Shauri (Tanzana) – 2:18:02
Eunice Chebichii Chumba (Kenya) – 2:20:02
Catherine Amanang’ole (Kenya) – 2:20:34
Balemelay Shumet (Ethiopia) – 2:21:59
Rose Harvey (Great Britain) – 2:23:21
Florencia Borelli (Argentina) 2:24:18
Eilish McColgan (Great Britain) – Debut
Jessica Warner-Judd (Great Britain) – 2:24:45
Fadouwa Ledhem (France) – 2:25:50
Marta Galimany (Spain) – 2:26:14
Lucy Reid (Great Britain) – 2:26:35
Julia Paternain (Uruguay) – 2:27:09
Louise Small (Great Britain) – 2:27:48
Verity Hopkins (Great Britain) – 2:31:19
Men’s elite field
Sabastian Sawe (Kenya) – 2:02:05
Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda) – 2:02:23
Deresa Geleta (Ethiopia) – 2:02:38
Amos Kipruto (Kenya) – 2:03:13
Tamirat Tola (Ethiopia) – 2:03:39
Amanal Petros (Germany) – 2:04:03
Geoffrey Kamworor (Kenya) – 2:04:23
Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda) – 2:04:52
Shunya Kikuchi (Japan) – 2:06:06
Mahamed Mahamed (Great Britain) – 2:07:05
Philip Sesemann (Great Britain) – 2:08:02
Adam Lipschitz (South Africa) – 2:08:54
Patrick Dever (Great Britain) – 2:08:58
Peter Lynch (Ireland) – 2:09:36
Tim Vincent (Australia) – 2:09:40
Weynay Ghebresilasie (Great Britain) – 2:09:50
Tewelde Menges (Great Britain) – 2:09:58
Liam Boudin (Australia) – 2:10:28
Jake Smith (Great Britain) – 2:11:00
Marc Scott (Great Britain) – 2:11:19
Jack Rowe (Great Britain) – 2:12:31
Andrew Fyfe (Great Britain) – 2:13:20
Alex Milne (Great Britain) – 2:16:30
Peter le Grice (Great Britain) – 2:14:45
Sean Hogan (Great Britain) – 2:14:51
Christopher Thomas (Great Britain) – 2:14:55
Chris Perry (Great Britain) – 2:14:57
David Bishop (Great Britain) – 2:15:16
Charlie Sandison (Great Britain) – 2:15:38
William Mycroft (Great Britain) – 2:15:54
Yomif Kejelcha (Ethiopia) – Debut
Hagos Gebrhiwet (Ethiopia) – Debut
Isaia Kipkoech Lasoi (Kenya) – Debut
Alfie Manthorpe (Great Britain) – Debut
