2010 London Marathon


The 2010 London Marathon was the 30th running of the annual marathon race in London, England, which took place on Sunday, 25 April. The elite men's race was won by Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede in a time of 2:05:19 hours and the elite women's race was won by Aselefech Mergia, also of Ethiopia, in 2:22:38.
In the wheelchair races, Canada's Josh Cassidy and Japan's Wakako Tsuchida won the men's and women's divisions, respectively.
Around 163,000 people applied to enter the race: 51,378 had their applications accepted and 36,956 started the race. A total of 36,553 runners, 24,423 men and 12,130 women, finished the race.
In the under-17 Mini Marathon, the 3-mile able-bodied and wheelchair events were won by Jack Gray, Jessica Judd, Daniel Lucker and Hannah Cockroft.

Summary

The men's event was won by Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia with a time of 2:05:19 and the women's event by Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia with a time of 2:22:38, a position moved up after numerous disqualifications for doping. Kebede became the first non-Kenyan to win the men's event in seven years. The men's wheelchair event was won by Josh Cassidy of Canada with a time of 1:35:21 while Wakako Tsuchida of Japan won the women's wheelchair event.
The event saw 74 world record attempts, including one involving 34 runners bound together by bungee cord to form a "human caterpillar", among whom was Princess Beatrice of York, the fifth in line to the British throne, who became the first royal family member to participate in the marathon. Of the attempts, 41 were successful. The marathon was sponsored by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, having signed a five-year contract, taking over from previous sponsors, Flora. Branson also ran the marathon for his first time.
Prior to the marathon, there had been concerns that the air-travel disruption caused by the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull could disrupt the event, though many athletes from outside of the United Kingdom were brought in by an aircraft specially chartered from Spain.
Both of the 2009 winners, Samuel Wanjiru and Irina Mikitenko, were present to defend their titles. However, neither athlete managed to finish the race as they both stopped around the mid-way point.

Results

Elite men

PositionAthleteNationalityTime
Tsegaye Kebede2:05:19
Emmanuel Kipchirchir Mutai2:06:23
Jaouad Gharib2:06:55
4Abderrahime Bouramdane2:07:33
5Abel Kirui2:08:04
6Marílson Gomes dos Santos2:08:46
7Zersenay Tadese2:12:03
8Andrew Lemoncello2:13:40
9Yonas Kifle2:14:39
10Andi Jones2:16:38
11Ben Moreau2:16:46
12Lee Merrien2:16:48
13Clint Perrett2:18:15
14Neil Renault2:18:09
15Dave Norman2:19:05
16Satoshi Irifune2:19:25
17Steve Way2:19:38
18Gareth Raven2:19:55
19Kristoffer Osterlund2:20:06
20Pieter Vermeesh2:20:16
—John Kiprotich
—Moses Kimeli Arusei
—Michael Morgan
—Titus Masai
—Samuel Wanjiru
—Dan Robinson
—Duncan Kibet
—Gedion Ngatuny
—John Kales

Elite women

Wheelchair men

PositionAthleteNationalityTime
1Josh Cassidy1:35:21
2Marcel Hug1:36:07
3David Weir1:37:01
4Kota Hokinoue1:40:59
5Kurt Fearnley1:41:37
6Ernst van Dyk1:44:11
7Masazumi Soejima1:44:35
8Roger Puigbò1:44:36
9Josh George1:46:57
10Mark Telford1:48:43

Wheelchair women

PositionAthleteNationalityTime
1Wakako Tsuchida1:52:33
2Sandra Graf1:52:34
3Amanda McGrory1:52:36
4Nikki Emmerson2:17:46
5Sarah Piercy2:33:50
6Shelly Woods2:45:40
—Diane Roy