London Marathon 2001

Greenwich, 22 April 2001

TULU & EL MOUAZIZ WIN LONDON MARATHON

The 21st running of the London Marathon started on Blackheath on a perfect Spring morning with the gorse bushes in full bloom.

The Olympic rower Sir Steve Redgrave, who has won a gold medal at the last 5 Olympic Games, was given the honour of wearing the number 1.  He fired the starting gun to send 32,000 runners on their way.

He even managed to achieve his ambition of not being beaten by his wife, who came in one second behind him! He finished in 4:55:36 with over 28,000 runners in front of him!

Almost 27,000 runners completed the race.  The final runners (B Anley, C James and D Eldridge) came in on 5:39:16.  Congratulations to everyone who finished, those who bettered their personal bests or overcome personal challenges.  Everyone's a winner.

I finished! - Tell the World here

• The Times has the times of all the runners here

See you next year in Greenwich on Sunday 14th April 2002.

Winners

Derartu Tulu (Ethiopia) and Abdelkader El Mouaziz (Morocco) celebrate victory in the Flora London Marathon.

Early drama as Tegla Loroupe dropped off the lead pack during the second mile. The world record holder came to halt, attempted a few stretches, seemed in two minds about continuing and then set off 50 seconds behind the lead pack who were progressing at close to world record pace.

At nine miles the gap from Tegla Loroupe to the second group had closed to 20 seconds with the Kenyan now apparently running easily. The lead group, however, was a minute ahead, still trailing the pacemakers at around 2:20 pace with no further casualties.

Halfway: the two pacemakers stepped aside – although one of them, Restituta Joseph, carried on to the finish and a 2:43:52 debut - and Simon stepped up the pace. The result was that the lead group immediately broke and Simon's pre-race plan began to unfold. Confident that she was extremely fit she had asked for a first half of 70 minutes from which she planned to launch her attack to get rid of Loroupe. With Loroupe long gone and Chepchumba also wilting, the only runners to take up Simon's challenge were the two Ethiopians Derartu Tulu and Elfenesh Alemu.

By mile 17 Chepchumba rejoined the leading trio looking very comfortable, as did - ominously so - Derartu Tulu. The dour Lidia Simon was still handling the pace making duties but the miles had started to slow.

Alemu reluctantly found herself in the front and the mile rate slowed yet further to 5:40 and suddenly the second group - with Loroupe at the front - began to get significantly closer.

Amazingly, Loroupe caught the leaders and straight away slotted in next to Simon's right elbow. Benefiting from her surge, Nuta Olaru (ROM), Alina Inanova (Russia) and Svetlana Zakharova (Russia)also rejoined the leaders with four miles to go.

At the Tower of London, approaching the cobbles, Simon tried a little surge, which was immediately covered by Loroupe. Coming out of the Blackfriars Tunnel, with the pace up to 5:20 miles, Loroupe came loose from the pack, her efforts to regain the lost yards finally taking their toll.

At 25 miles, five runners were still together, Zahkarova, Simon, Chepchumba, Olaru and the track runner Tulu who had never showed in the lead. Wheeling right at Big Ben and crossing Parliament Square, Tulu made her first decisive move to take a winning lead over Zakharova from Chepchumba and Simon.

Tulu came home in a personal best of 2:23:57 after avoiding the intentions of two interlopers in the finish area. Svetlana was also rewarded with personal best of 2:24:04, three minutes faster than her previous record. Chepchumba raised her pace down the straight for her fifth sub-2:25 clocking in six races and retain her London top three finish record while Simon who promised so much finished a very, one imagines, disappointed fourth.

The hugely talented men’s field followed the scenario of the past two races and held off the pacemakers’ speed, forcing them to drift back to earn their wages. With the main pack running at 2:09 pace Mark Steinle was able to feature prominently with the leaders.

A large pack approached Tower Bridge where 1999 winner El Mouaziz surged up to the pacemakers and looked for a time to have made the first significant move of the race. Reigning champion Pinto, however, rallied his troops and gathered the escapees in. The net result of those moves was that Jon Brown came adrift and eventually retired, reduced training, a hip problem and recent illness proving too much of a burden.

The front runners now consisted of Japhet Kosgei (Kenya), Pinto, Tesfaye Tola (Ethiopia), Abdelkader El Mouaziz (Morocco), Tesfaye Jifa (Ethiopia) with the elegant Paul Tergat (Kenya) cruising smoothly at the back.

A second and, as it turned out, decisive increase in pace by El Mouaziz took him away from his rivals with only Paul Tergat with the strength to follow although a five yard gap stubbornly refused to be closed.

From now on the race was between El Mouaziz and the clock with the course record gradually looking safer as the gap back to Kenyan opened. Looking strong the Moroccan celebrated down the final straight to set a personal best of 2:07:11 and carrying on a remarkable record of never finishing lower than second in four races.

Mark Steinle provided a heartening result with his sixth place in 2:10:46 to continue his steady improvement and assure himself a place in the World Championship team for Edmonton.

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