One of the runners in the elite men’s race is Emile Cairess who eventually wants to break Mo Farah’s British record of 2:05:11, lower his personal best to 2:03 and win an Olympic medal.

I definitely want to break Mo’s British record. I want to run as fast as possible and I feel like I can run a lot quicker than that in the future.

An Olympic medal is also my goal – definitely for Los Angeles. Although for this Olympics, if I can qualify, then I would like to be competitive. I wouldn’t be going there just to make up the numbers.

I’ve definitely progressed a lot. My workouts, mileage, anything you can quantify, is better than before.

The men’s racers are on the start line. Off they go and huge cheers ring out as the last race gets under way. Behind them: the rest of the 50,000 starters. These are record numbers at the London Marathon.

The tribute for Kiptum, an athlete whose memory will live on, has begun ahead of the elite men’s race. A very poignant moment in London.

The final elite race is set to start in about 15 minutes. There will be a 30-second applause before the race in memory of last year’s winner Kelvin Kiptum.

The 24-year-old marathon world record-holder died in February along with his coach Gervais Hakizimana from severe injuries after a car accident.

As of this year, Kiptum has run three of the seven fastest marathons in history and was ranked first among the world’s men’s marathon runners at the time of his death.

And in the men’s race, Hug and Romanchuk are neck-in-neck at the front of the pack as they approach the 14km mark.

The two are actually chatting with each other as the make a turn. Encouraging one another on? A bit of trash talk? Who knows?

Catherine Debrunner has broken free of Manuela Schär and has now passed some of the backmarkers in the men’s wheelchair race.

This is Debrunner’s first Majors appearance this season. She has set new course records at the 2022 Berlin Marathon, breaking five-time winner Schär’s streak of five Berlin wins, and the 2023 Chicago Marathon.

And the women’s elite racers are lined up on the start line. It seems the temperature has plummeted a bit in London as all of them are attempting to warm up their hands and arms.

A good crowd cheers them on as the announcer introduces what many believe is the greatest field assembled at the London Marathon. And they are off!

We’re just over 11 minutes into the elite wheelchair race and the American Daniel Romanchuk is in the lead. Hug and Weir are right behind him in second and third respectively.

Romanchuk was the first American to win the men’s wheelchair division of the New York City Marathon back in 2018 and won the event in London in 2019.

The wheelchair race marks a significant win in disability sport as the London Marathon has become the first marathon in the world to make its prize money for wheelchair athletes the same as the other elite races.

So, all winners in the elite races today will receive £44,000 with the runner-up getting £24,000 and third-place £18,000.

The wheelchair athletes have made their way to the start line and are off in the first elite race of the day.

Russell ‘Hardest Geezer’ Cook was just interviewed on the BBC’s pre-race coverage. Cook ran 9,941 miles from one tip of Africa to the other in under a year and an average of over 28 miles a day.

He began running on 22 April 2023 in South Africa’s most southerly point. During his 352 days of running, Cook raised more than £650,000 for charities.

“I can really only sum it up by saying it was carnage from start to finish,” said Cook on his milestone in Africa. “I think we’re going to find out how badly damaged the body is today. This is my first long run since I’ve been back in the UK.”

Cook also shared that he had 93 hours worth of music that he lent on during his incredible journey. When asked what song he never wants to hear again, he said: “Maybe Toto. It is a good tune but when you hear it one to many times it’s just like …” Fair enough.

In the first elite race of the day, the British wheelchair racing legend David Weir will be racing in his 25th consecutive London Marathon this year.

Weir is the most decorated athlete in the event’s history with eight wins. He will be racing with a new chair which he has broken personal bests and may give him the push he needs for a possible ninth victory in London.

“It’s basically a Formula One chair because it’s made by Sauber (which has a Formula One team under the name Stake F1 Team Kick Sauber), it feels amazing to push,” Weir said.

Weir will be facing the undisputed No 1 wheelchair racer, Marcel Hug. The Switzerland native was the first man to win all six Abbott World Marathon Majors (Tokyo, Boston, Berlin, Chicago, New York and London) in a single season last year and will be aiming for a fourth straight win in London.

Hugh Brasher, the London Marathon race director believes the women’s race may be a tougher race than the Olympics.

No race in the history of our sport has ever had that,” says Brasher. “I have no idea who’s going to win but it’s going to be an incredibly competitive event. This will be a harder marathon to win than the Olympic marathon in Paris, I’m pretty certain of that.

Here is Sean Ingle with more.

So about that record. Ethiopia’s Tigist Assefa has set her sights on further lowering her women’s marathon world record to under two hours 10 minutes – but admits her only goal in today is to win.

Assefa ran 2hr 11min 53sec in Berlin last September – a time that obliterated the previous mark of 2:14:04 set by Brigid Kosgei in 2019.

But when asked whether she was chasing a fast time in London, Assefa was more circumspect. “My goal is to win,” she replied. The sense is that Assefa will not go at full throttle today given that she also has the Olympic marathon in Paris in under four months’ time, she is still the overwhelming favourite.

Assefa will be racing against the former record holder Kosgei, fellow cou Ruth Chepngetich, the Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir and the 2022 London Marathon winner Yalemzerf Yehualaw.

In the men’s race, Tamirat Tola will be keen to match his efforts at the New York City Marathon from November which he won. He came in third in this race last year. His competitors include Mosinet Geremew, who ran the third-fastest time in history at the 2019 London Marathon and Kenenisa Bekele, whose seemingly endless accolades include three Olympic gold medals.

Preamble