The 2024 London Marathon took place on Sunday, April 21, in cool conditions. Over 50,000 runners registered for the highly-sought after race (a record-breaking 500,000 applied for a spot via the lottery). The weather at the start line was sunny with temperatures around 8 degrees Celsius and fairly strong winds.

Peres Jepchirchir won the women’s race in a women’s-only world record of 2:16:16, and Alexander Munyao ran 2:04:01 to win the men’s race.

Here are the highlights.

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Peres Jepchirchir outkicks the world record holder to win the women’s race
The reigning Olympic champion in the marathon, Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya, made an emphatic move with less than 400 metres to go to gap the field and win the London Marathon in 2:16:16. World record holder Tigst Assefa was next across the line in 2:16:23, slightly ahead of Joyciline Jepkosgei, who placed third in 2:16:24.

Jepchirchir’s victory marks a return to form at the marathon distance for the 30-year-old, who missed November’s New York City Marathon with an injury and placed third at last year’s London Marathon. Her time of 2:16:16 is a new women ’s-only world record (i.e. run without the aid of male pacers), breaking Mary Keitany’s mark of 2:17:01 set at London in 2017.

Jepchirchir now adds London to an impressive resume of major marathon wins. She won the 2021 New York City Marathon and 2022 Boston Marathon and took gold at the Tokyo Olympics on a hot and humid day. She’ll look to defend her title at this summer’s Paris Olympics.

The only American in the elite field, Susanna Sullivan, who set a personal best of 2:24:27 at London last year, did not appear to start the race. Sullivan is coming off a patellar stress fracture that prevented her from competing at the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials in February.

Alexander Munyao earns his first major marathon win in men’s race
Kenya’s Alexander Munyao broke away from 41-year-old Kenenisa Bekele to win his first London Marathon in 2:04:01, which ties him for the seventh-fastest time on the course. Bekele hung on for second place in 2:04:15 — a new masters world record — while Emile Cairess of Great Britain rounded out the podium in 2:06:46.

Munyao and Bekele separated themselves from the pack by the 35K split, gapping the likes of 2023 New York City Marathon winner Tamirat Tola and 2:05 marathoner Milkesa Mengesha, who would both drop out. At the 1 hour, 56-minute mark, Munyao began to pull ahead of Bekele and never relinquished his lead, winning by 14 seconds.

This is the first World Major Marathon victory for Munyao, 27, although his personal best of 2:03:11 from the Valencia Marathon is among the top in the world.

Brian Shrader was the top American of the race, finishing in 2:10:50 for 10th place. He competed at the Olympic Marathon Trials in February but dropped out after 27 kilometres.

Jacob Caswell wins the nonbinary division
A week after taking fifth place in the nonbinary division at the Boston Marathon, Jacob Caswell ran 3:02:22 to win the race in London. Caswell is a fixture on the podium at the World Marathon Majors, earning top nonbinary honors at the 2022 New York Marathon and 2023 Chicago Marathon. In second place on Sunday was Ben Walley (3:13:34), and Bradley Glover took third (3:14:12). This is the second year that participants at London were allowed to register as something other than “male” or “female.”

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