Kipchoge wins London Marathon for record 4th time

Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya ran the second-fastest time ever to win the London Marathon for a record fourth time Sunday, and compatriot Brigid Kosgei swept to victory by almost two minutes in the women's race.

Brigid Kosgei captures women's title

Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya crosses the line in two hour two minutes 37 seconds to win the men's race at the London Marathon on a blustery Sunday. Kipchoge broke the world record in Berlin last September in 2:01:39. (Naomi Baker/Getty Images)

Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya ran the second-fastest time ever to win the London Marathon for a record fourth time Sunday, and compatriot Brigid Kosgei swept to victory by almost two minutes in the women's race.

The 34-year-old Kipchoge pulled clear of Ethiopian runners Mosinet Geremew and Mule Wasihun in the final 10 minutes to complete the 42.2-kilometre course in two hours two minutes 37 seconds on a blustery day in the British capital.

Only Kipchoge has run a marathon quicker than that, when breaking the world record in Berlin in September in a time of 2:01:39. With more twists and turns, London is typically a slower course than Berlin — making Kipchoge's display even more exceptional.

"I'm happy to win on the streets of London for the fourth time and to make history on a day that the event has raised 1 billion pounds," said Kipchoge, who won in London in 2015, '16 and '18.

Geremew finished 18 seconds behind, and Wasihun a further 21 seconds back. Nobody has run quicker to finish a marathon in second or third place.

Home favourite Mo Farah — a four-time Olympic champion on the track — could not live with the pace, dropping away at the 14-mile mark and finishing a distant fifth at the end of a week when he was involved in an extraordinary public feud with retired distance-running great Haile Gebrselassie.

Kosgei bettered her second-place finish in last year's race by winning in 2:18:20 for her second victory in the World Marathon Majors, after Chicago last year. She ran the quickest-ever second half of a women's marathon.

Compatriot and defending champion Vivian Cheruiyot finished in a time of 2:20:14 and Roza Dereje of Ethiopia was third, 37 seconds further back.

Dan Romanchuk, a 20-year-old American, won the men's wheelchair race ahead of Switzerland's Marcel Hug. Canada's Brent Lakatos finished in 12th, while teammate Josh Cassidy was 18th. The women's wheelchair race was won comfortably by Switzerland's Manuela Schar, the 2017 champion.