intosport.com would like to extend its congratulations to all those who took part in the London Marathon 2010 this weekend. Everyone from the winning elite athletes to those in all kinds of strange fancy dress outfits should feel extremely proud of themselves.
It was an incredible turn out as approximately 36,000 runners took their starting orders and set off from their respective start points. The elite men’s race was won by Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede who finished over a minute clear of Kenya's Emmanuel Mutai. The 27-year-old clocked an impressive 2h13m40 and became only the third Ethiopian to win the London Marathon. Speaking in a humble tone he said “I was a bit disappointed with the run actually. It is OK, it is a good start and hopefully I will go into the next one with a lot more confidence”. World champion Abel Kirui slid down the field in the final stages and eventually finished fifth.
In the elite women’s race, it was Russia’s glory as Liliya Shobukhova and Inga Abitova came in 1st and 2nd respectively, with Shobukhova’s winning time clocked at 2h21m59s. Unfortunately Britain’s Mara Yamauchi faded from contention around the half way mark and couldn’t better her previous year’s performance of 2nd, eventually finishing in 10th.
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Virgin boss Richard Branson completed the course dressed as a butterfly
There was also heart break for another of our British athletes as David Weir was denied a fifth successive Wheelchair Race win when a succession of punctures prevented him from turning his dominance of the race into a victory. It was left to Canadian Josh Cassidy to take the title and win his first London Marathon.
As always it wasn’t just the elite athletes that were achieving greatness as people from all different walks of life participated. Princess Beatrice became the first Royal to compete in the race after running in a group of 34 who set a new record for the highest number of interlinked runners to finish. Virgin boss Richard Branson completed the course dressed as a butterfly, whilst Emmerdale actor Tony Audenshaw was the fastest celebrity.
Other records set this year included account manager David Ross, 42, from Sutton becoming the fastest-ever cartoon character when he finished dressed as Fred Flintstone. Police officer Jill Christie wore a Superwoman outfit and took the record for quickest female superhero and financial analyst Ben Afforselles from Kent, was the fastest leprechaun.
The Icelandic ash cloud had threatened to disrupt the race and many of the elite athletes only arrived after boarding a specially chartered flight from Madrid on Thursday. However the event ended up going ahead without any problems and finished on a good note when a competitor named Luke proposed to his girlfriend Yvette live on the BBC during his post race interview, congratulations to the happy couple!
We’ll be posting our intosport.com London Marathon video review, so stay tuned for more!