Eamonn Martin: “I get no pleasure from the fact no British man has won London since me”

After storming to glory in 1993, little did the Basildon runner realise that it would signal the start of a 30-year drought of domestic male victories at the London Marathon

It is 30 years since Eamonn Martin charged to victory in the London Marathon. Making his debut at the distance, the then 34-year-old showed few signs of inexperience and always looked in control as he followed every move. In the closing stages only one rival remained – Isidro Rico of Mexico. But, racing under the shadow of Big Ben with 200m to go, the British 10,000m record-holder unleashed his trademark sprint finish to triumph emphatically in a time of 2:10:50.

It was a grey, windswept spring morning in the capital and the jubilant Martin was cheered home by huge crowds before being overwhelmed by interview requests in the subsequent days. In typical old-school fashion, six days later he put his Basildon AC singlet on again to race for his club at the national road relays and received a standing ovation from fellow athletes at Sutton Park.

Following the victories of Hugh Jones, Mike Gratton, Charlie Spedding, Steve Jones and Allister Hutton, Martin was the sixth British man to triumph in the race in the space of 12 years. What nobody could imagine at the time, though, is that no British male runner has been unable to win the race since.

“I get no pleasure out of the fact that no British man has won since me,” he says. “I don’t want to take that to my grave. I want the sport that I’m so heavily involved in to have progressed. If a Brit won in the next few years, I would be genuinely really pleased. The kudos of winning in 1993 has been great, but it’s done.”

Ironically, Martin was not massively favoured to win back then either. Some considered him too tall and heavy to be a good marathon runner. He was also in the twilight of his career, had never run a marathon and was minus a shoe sponsor at the time. After winning, though, he joked that he was “fastest fat old git on the day”.

At the pre-event press conference the British male contenders included Martin, Paul Evans, Paul Davies-Hale, Carl Thackery and Steve Brace. Martin was last to be brought on to the stage but whereas his fellow competitors talked about various injuries and problems they’d suffered, he simply smiled and said “everything went perfectly”.

His build-up had been injury and illness-free. After enjoying victory at the Hastings Half…