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.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
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