Kipchoge retains London Marathon title in course record, missing world best by eight seconds

Eliud Kipchoge successfully defended his London Marathon title in a course record on Sunday to seal his place in Kenya’s Olympic marathon team.

Kipchoge broke away from New York City Marathon champion Stanley Biwott just before the 40km mark, cruising home to victory in 2 hours, 03 minutes and 05 seconds, missing the World record by seven seconds.

However, his time was not only enough to break the course record held by Wilson Kipsang of 2:04:29 when he won the 2014 race, but also improved on his personal best of 2:04:00 from his victory in Berlin last year.

The world record of 2:02:57 is being held by Dennis Kimetto from the 2014 Berlin Marathon victory.

Biwott finished second in personal best of 2:03:51 as Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele finished third at 2:06:38.

The race zeroed down to Kipchoge, Biwott and Bekele as they crossed the 27km mark in 1:14:49.

However, Bekele’s legs wilted against the might of Kenyans as he fell back with Kipchoge and Biwott cruising on past the 30km in 1:29:12.