FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wanjiru to defend Virgin Money London Marathon title
24/01/2018
The reigning men’s champion Daniel Wanjiru, the elite women’s wheelchair
champion and the current women’s world champion Rose Chelimo have been
confirmed to run the 2018 Virgin Money London Marathon.
The announcements have been made on the fourth day of the Virgin Money
London Marathon’s Elite Week – with one final day to go before the full
elite fields are released.
Wanjiru was the surprise winner of last year’s London Marathon when he held
off the threat of Kenenisa Bekele to win in two hours five minutes and 48
seconds.
It was the biggest win of the 25-year-old Kenyan’s career and he will
return to the capital as another man to watch in a star-studded field.
Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge, Sir Mo Farah and Kenenisa Bekele have
already been announced while the full elite men’s field will be released
tomorrow [Thursday 25] on the final day of Elite Week.
Chelimo, 28, will be making her Virgin Money London Marathon debut and she
will have happy memories of the British capital as she won the World
Championships marathon in the city last summer.
The Kenyan-born athlete, who now represents Bahrain, won a fascinating
battle with two-time previous champion Edna Kiplagat to win the world title
on Tower Bridge last August in 2:27:11.
It was only Chelimo’s fourth marathon following a win in Seoul in 2016
(2:24:14), and eighth place at the 2016 Olympics (2:27:36) and a runner-up
finish at the Boston Marathon last year in 2:22:51.
Schar, 33, of Switzerland, won her first Virgin Money London Marathon last
year when she smashed the course record, finishing in a time of 1:39:57.
She sits comfortably top of the Abbott World Marathon Majors Series XI
standings thanks to follow-up wins in Berlin and New York last year.
The Abbott World Marathon Majors started at last year’s Virgin Money London
Marathon and will conclude at this year’s event, taking in results from
Berlin, Chicago, New York, Tokyo and Boston marathons in between.
Tomorrow [Thursday] is the final day of the Virgin Money London Marathon’s
Elite Week which will conclude with a Facebook Live show featuring former
British distance running international Tim Hutchings, the Virgin Money
London Marathon elite field co-ordinator and former world 10,000m record
holder Dave Bedford and Athletics Weekly’s web editor Jess Whittington.
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