2022 London Marathon
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the race was postponed from April until October to maximise the chances of a mass participation event.
The elite men's and women's event were won by Kenyan Amos Kipruto and Ethiopian Yalemzerf Yehualaw respectively.
The wheelchair races were won by Swiss athletes Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner respectively, both in course record times.
In August 2021, the 2022 London Marathon was postponed from April until October, to increase the chances that such a large event could be held safely during the COVID-19 pandemic.
[6] After winding through Canary Wharf, the route returns through Shadwell on the other side of the road to which it entered before passing through Tower Hill.
[9][6] The top three finishers in the 2021 elite women's race – winner Joyciline Jepkosgei and runners-up Degitu Azimeraw and Ashete Bekere – all competed in 2022.
[10] Other competitors with a personal best of under 2:20:00 included Joan Chelimo Melly, Sutume Asefa Kebede, Alemu Megertu and Hiwot Gebrekidan.
[13] Briton Eilish McColgan, whose mother Liz won the 1996 London Marathon,[10][14] withdrew for medical reasons in September 2022.
[16] The elite men's race featured 2021 winner Sisay Lemma, as well as Kenenisa Bekele, Birhanu Legese and Mosinet Geremew, the second, third and fifth-fastest marathon runners in history respectively.
The races were started by England women's footballers Leah Williamson, Ellen White and Jill Scott,[19] and were run in dry conditions.
[25] At the halfway point of the race, the leading pack contained Joyciline Jepkosgei, Yalemzerf Yehualaw, Alemu Megertu, Ashete Bekere, Judith Korir, Joan Melly, Asefa Kebede, and Hiwot Gebrekidan.
[28] The leading pack stayed together until 35 kilometres (22 mi), and consisted of Kipruto, Kenenisa Bekele, Sisay Lemma, Leul Gebresilase, Bashir Abdi, Birhanu Legese and Kinde Atanaw.
[32] The mass-start race included former Olympians James Cracknell, Steve Batchelor, Tom McEwen, Iwan Thomas and Joan Benoit, who won the marathon event at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
[19] Other sportspeople who competed included Formula E driver Sam Bird, former footballer Danny Mills and former rugby player Greg O'Shea, who also won the 2019 series of Love Island.
[33] Non-sporting celebrities that competed included television personality Mark Wright, Harry Judd from the band McFly, actor George Rainsford, BBC newsreader Sophie Raworth, and Jeremy Joseph, the owner of G-A-Y and Heaven nightclubs.
