Press Release - London Marathon - 1/24/18

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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