Mutiso wades off Bekele to win London Marathon

Kenya’s Alexander Mutiso Munyao is the surprise winner of this year’s London Marathon.

Munyao, who was making his debut in London as well as the World Marathon Majors, claimed his major career victory in two hours, 04 minutes and 01 seconds.

The 27-year-old Munyao, who was competing in his fourth marathon, went head-to-head with Ethiopia’s legendary distance runner Kenenisa Bekele in the last 12km before dropping him way into the last seven kilometres.

Bekele finished second in 2:04:15 followed by Great Britain’s duo of Emile Cairess and Mahamed Mahamed in career best 2:06:46 and 2:07:05 respectively.

It was Munyai’s fourth outing in a marathon, having made his debut in Tokyo in 2020 but failed to finish the race.

Munyao competed at the 2022 Valencia Marathon where he finished third in personal best 2:03:29 to share the podium with the late Kelvin Kiptum, who won in a course record time of 2:01:53.

It made Kiptum the third fastest man then as Munyao’s time, ranked him 20th fastest man ever in the history of marathon.

On May 7, last year, Munyao won Prague Marathon in 2:05:09 before returning to Valencia in December the same year to finish second in the 13th fastest ever time of 2:03:11, a race won by Ethiopian Sisay Lemma in the fourth fastest time ever of 2:01:48.

Bekele finished fourth in the race in 2:04:19.

Kenyans have now won the last three editions of the London Marathon with Kiptum winning last year in a course record time of 2:01.25, erasing Eliud Kipchoge's previous time of 2:02:37 set in 2019.

Men’s results

1.Alexander Mutiso Munyao, (KEN) 2:04:01,

2.Kenenisa Bekele (ETH) 2:04:15,

3.Emile Cairess, (GBR) 2:06:46,

4.Mahamed Mahamed (GBR) 2:07:05,

5.Chahdi Hassan (FRA) 2:07:30,

6.Henok Tesfsy (ERI) 2:09:22,

7.Hendrik Pfeiffer (GER) 2:10:00,

8.Kinde Atanaw, (ETH) 2:10:039,

9.Johannes Motschmann (GER) 2:10:39

10.Brian Shrader (USA) 2:10:50