ASSEFA, SAWE DOMINATE TCS LONDON MARATHON

ASSEFA, SAWE DOMINATE TCS LONDON MARATHON
By David Monti, @d9monti
(c) 2025 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved, used with permission. 

NOTE: This story was written remotely-Ed.

(27-Apr) — In sunny and a-bit-too-warm conditions, Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa and Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe dominated the 45th edition of the TCS London Marathon this morning.  The two adidas-sponsored athletes won using late-race breakaways, and Assefa established a pending women-only world record of 2:15:50.  Sawe, running in only his second marathon, clocked the second-fastest time in London Marathon history: 2:02:27.

Ahead of the elite runners, Switzerland’s Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner ran away with the professional wheelchair racing titles in 1:25:25 and 1:34:18, respectively.  Hug won his seventh London Marathon (sixth in a row), and Debrunner set a course record and came within two seconds of her own world record.

WOMEN START OUT FAST

Although the women’s field was weakened by the late withdrawals of world record holder Ruth Chepngetich and 2021 Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir (both of Kenya), Assefa still faced strong competition from reigning Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands and former half-marathon world record holder Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya.  Shepherded by Kenyan pacemakers Catherine Reline Amanang’ole and Gladys Chepkurui, the trio went through 5 km in an aggressive 15:34.  They were also joined by Ethiopia’s Megertu Alemu, and the chase pack of Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot, Ethiopia’s Haven Hailu Desse, American Susanna Sullivan, and Uganda’s Stella Chesang were already 50 seconds back.  Scottish debutante Eilish McColgan was running alone another three seconds back.

The leading four women stayed together through 10 km (31:16), and 15 km (47:11).  It was at that point that both Alemu and Hassan began to have trouble.  Alemu slowed dramatically in the next 5-kilometer segment (she would drop out before 25-K), and Hassan managed to maintain contact through the half-way point (1:06:40) where she was only ten seconds behind.  Amanang’ole stayed on the front, but Chepkurui dropped out just before 20-K.