The Flora London Marathon 2009

Everyone is counting down the days to the 28th Flora London Marathon, to be held on the 26th of April 2009.

Always a hugely popular event the 2008 London Marathon, which is also the largest annual fund raising event in the world, accepted 46,500 starters from a record 80,500 applicants and saw 34,497 runners crossing the line in 2008.

Photo Credit: dan taylor.

The event is part of the World Marathon Majors, a two year championship style competition over the marathon distance that offers a $1 million cash bonus to be split equally between the top male and female marathoners in the world, and never fails to attract a high caliber elite field.

With the shock announcement that world record holder and home town favorite Paula Radcliffe has withdrawn from this years event with a broken toe, the question is now, who will take the 2009 title?

Among the leading contenders are Olympic champion Constantina Dita or Romania who last year became the oldest marathon champion at 38.

With faster times are Kenyan athlete Catherine Ndereba, with a personal best time of 2:18:47, German Irina Mikitenko who has clocked a 2:19:19 and Zhou Chunxiu from China who has recorded 2:19:51 over the marathon distance.

Other contenders for the women’s race are:

Athlete	Country	Personal Best Time
Berhane Adere	Ethiopia	2:20:42
Lyudmila Petrova	Russia	2:21:29
Svetlana Zakharova	Russia	2:21:31
Gete Wami	Ethiopia	2:21:34
Yuri Kano	Japan	2.24.27
Tomo Morimoto	Japan	2.24.33
Mara Yamauchi	Great Britain	2:25:03
Martha Komu	Kenya	2:25:33
Mika Okunaga	Japan	2.27.52
Kirsten Melkevik Otterbu	Norway	2:29:12
Inga Abitova	Russia	2:33:55
Kate O’Neill	USA	2:34:04
Liliya Shobukhova	Russia	Debut
Jo Pavey	Great Britain	Debut

In the men’s event, all eyes will be on Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru who last year ran what some have called the best marathon of all time, in a brutal race in the Beijing heat where the leaders set a sub-3 minute kilometer pace from the start of the race. Sammy held on to win, beating compatriot and last year’s winner of London, Martin Lel, who is also entered and considered one of the favorites.

Martin Lel spirts to take the 2005 men’s marathon title.
Photo Credit: yaaaay

Lel who has had victories in London in 2005, 2007 and 2008 is aiming to become the first man in history to win four London Marathons, but according to Flora London Marathon race director David Bedford he will face stiff competition and will have to be at his absolute best to win the 2009 event.

Recent form in the Lisbon marathon shows that Lel is in good touch winning easily from competitors Robert Cheruiyot and Maroccan Jaouad Gharib in 59:56, in what was a tactical race well off the course record.

Wanjiru, who also competed in the Lisbon race does not look so promising finishing in over 61 minutes, well off his world record half marathon best of 58:33 run two years ago in Holland.

Either Wanjiru’s massive 2008 is starting to take it’s toll on the Kenyan champion, or else he is doing insane amounts of high volume training, likely over 100 miles a week in preparation for London and it’s crippled his performance over the shorter event.

Either way all eyes will be on him when the 26th rolls around.

Another athlete to watch is Etrian Zersenay Tadese who will make his marathon debut in London. Tadese recently finished 3rd in the IAAF World Cross Country 12k, an event noted as the most competitive endurance race in the world. Tadese was the 2007 champion in the event and received US $10,000 for his third place effort.

Other competitors entered in the men’s field include:

Athlete	Country	Personal Best Time
Abderrahim Goumri	Morocco	2:05:30
Khalid Khannouchi	USA	2:05:38
Felix Limo	Kenya	2:06:14
Emmanuel Mutai	Kenya	2:06:15
Tsegaye Kebede	Ethiopia	2:06:40
Hendrick Ramaala	South Africa	2:06:55
Jaouad Gharib	Morocco	2:07:02
Viktor Röthlin	Switzerland	2:07:23
Yonas Kifle	Etrian	2:07:34
Tessema Abshiro	Ethiopia	2:08:26
Dathan Ritzenhein	USA	2:11:06
Hicham Bellani	Morocco	Debut

London Marathon Facts

• The London Marathon has been held each year since 1981. The event is usually held in April
• London is one of the top five international marathons
• The total amount of charity raised over all London Marathons since 1981 is £315 million
• The official charity of the 2009 London Marathon is The Children's Trust, Tadworth.
• London is the only Marathon course run in two hemispheres, both the east and the west. This is because the course spans either side of the Prime Meridian in Greenwich.
• On 16th of May, 2008 London Marathon Limited signed a new five year sponsorship deal with Virgin and Virgin Money worth £17 million.
• The first London Marathon was held on 29 March 1981. More than 20,000 applied to run. 6,747 were accepted and there were 6,255 finishers.
• In 2008 34,497 people crossed the line making it a total of 711,260 finishers since the race’s inception.