Tens of thousands of people on Sunday lined the streets of London to cheer on participants in the hottest ever London Marathon.
As the mercury hit 23.2°C, runners who had trained throughout Britain’s particularly long and cold winter struggled to cope with the heat.
However, the sunshine failed to stop Mo Farah from setting a new British record of 2 hour, 6 minutes, 21 seconds, beating the mark set in 1985 by Steve Jones.
However, Farah — who retired from the track last year to focus on road racing — was just more than two minutes behind Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, who made it a hat-trick of wins, with Tola Shura Kitata of Ethiopia finishing second.
England’s David Weir won the men’s wheelchair race for an unprecedented eighth time.
Warnings from organizers about the heat failed to deter some entrants from wearing costumes and fancy dress, which ranged from trees and bananas to rhinos.
A St John ambulance officer said that more runners needed treatment this year than in past races, although no numbers were released on Sunday.
As 71-year-old Kathrine Switzer — who in 1967 became the first woman to officially compete in the Boston Marathon — passed the 11-mile mark, three runners required medical attention, including one who collapsed against the barrier.
At the 9-mile mark, newspaper columnist Bryony Gordon and plus-size model Jada Sezer were all smiles as they went past in their underwear to raise money for Heads Together and prove that anyone, no matter their size or shape, could compete in the race.
At the finish line, Max Randalf was greeted by cheers from his friends: “It was hell. It was hot. I’ve done two marathons before and it was definitely the toughest one because of the heat, but it was also the best because of all the inspirational people and the crowd waving to you.”
Robe Pope, who broke a world record for the fastest time dressed as a film character, has run more than 15,000 miles in the past 19 months in an attempt to recreate Forrest Gump’s fictional run across the US, as featured in the 1994 film.
“I can run like the wind blows. Today was unbelievable. I had so many ‘Run Forrest run’ shouts, a couple of ‘beardy man’ and a couple ‘Jesus,’ but mostly ‘Forrest Gump,’” the 39-year-old from Liverpool said after the race.
Pope, who was raising money for the World Wildlife Fund and Peace Direct, added: “In the film Forrest Gump they ask him: ‘Why are you doing this? Are you running for women’s rights? World peace? The homeless? The environment? Animals?’ And between those two charities they cover all those bases,” he added.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
If all goes well when the biggest marathon field ever gathered in Australia races 42km through the streets of Sydney on Sunday, World Marathon Majors (WMM) will soon add a seventh race to the elite series. The Sydney Marathon is to become the first race since Tokyo in 2013 to join long-established majors in New York, London, Boston, Berlin and Chicago if it passes the WMM assessment criteria for the second straight year. “We’re really excited for Sunday to arrive,” race director Wayne Larden told a news conference in Sydney yesterday. “We’re prepared, we’re ready. All of our plans look good on
The lights dimmed and the crowd hushed as Karoline Kristensen entered for her performance. However, this was no ordinary Dutch theater: The temperature was 80°C and the audience naked apart from a towel. Dressed in a swimsuit and to the tune of emotional music, the 21-year-old Kristensen started her routine, performed inside a large sauna, with a bed of hot rocks in the middle. For a week this month, a group of wellness practitioners, called “sauna masters,” are gathering at a picturesque health resort in the Netherlands to compete in this year’s Aufguss world sauna championships. The practice takes its name from a
When details from a scientific experiment that could have helped clear Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva landed at the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), the leader of the organization’s reaction was unequivocal: “We have to stop that urgently,” he wrote. No mention of the test ever became public and Valieva’s defense at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) went on without it. What effect the information could have had on Valieva’s case is unclear, but without it, the skater, then 15 years old, was eventually disqualified from the 2022 Winter Olympics after testing positive for a banned heart medication that would later