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Mo Farah Sets A New British Record At The London Marathon

Mo Farah Sets A New British Record At The London Marathon

He finished third behind Eliud Kipchoge and Tola Shura Kitata

Tom Wood

Tom Wood

Sir Mo Farah has smashed the British record as he finished third in the London Marathon this afternoon.

Farah finished the 26.2 mile course around London's city centre in two hours, six minutes and 21 seconds.

This puts him easily ahead of the previous record, set by Steve Jones in 1975. Jones ran the course in two hours, seven minutes and 13 seconds, meaning that Farah has taken almost a minute off the time.

The men's race was won by Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge in two hours, four minutes and 16 seconds. Kipchoge also won the Olympic gold medal over this distance.

PA

Farah, a four time Olympic champion, was running his first competitive race at this length since he switched his focus from track running to road running.

He will take a lot of heart from his first hit out at this level and will be especially pleased given that this year's event was the hottest ever edition of the London Marathon.

The Met Office recorded a temperature of 23.2 degrees Celsius in St James Park which is even higher than the 22.7C recorded at the 1996 event.

Nearly 800,000 fans lined the streets of the route to cheer on Sir Mo, as well as several other British hopefuls across the different categories.

Mo was not the only Briton with a cause for celebration, either.

PA

David Weir completed his eighth London Marathon wheelchair victory. The 38-year-old held off stiff competition from Switzerland's Marcel Hug and the USA's Daniel Romanchuk.

In the end Weir held off the Swiss challenger by just the length of a chair to win a race that he first triumphed in 16 years ago.

The women's event was won by another Kenyan, Vivian Cheruyiot, and Madison de Rozario of Australia took the women's wheelchair title.

After the elite runners got out of the way, around 40,000 others have been making their way around the course. Due to the warm weather the organisers were forced to ask runners to rethink their fancy dress choices to prevent dehydration and heat exhaustion.

David Weir, Prince Harry, and Madison de Rozario.
PA

Amongst those running are fire fighters who helped to tackle the Grenfell tower blaze and a policeman who was stabbed during the London Bridge terrorist attack.

The Queen set the runners off at Windsor Castle this morning at 10am with the ceremonial 'Red Button' pressing.

The course takes participants all the way around London, along the Thames, and then down The Mall to the finish.

Organisers are hoping that a record amount of money will be raised this year for the various charities that people are running for. Last year £61.5m was raised.

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: News, Mo Farah, UK, London