If you flip through marathon journals around the world, or check out statistics on men’s marathon over on the internet, you will be taken on a mental flight back to East Africa, where athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia have performed well in London Marathon.
It remains to be seen if athletics stars from these two rival nations, and by extension Uganda, will continue their impressive performances when the 45th edition is held today.
The London Marathon holds a special place on the global athletics calendar since more than two billion viewers will be glued to TV screens to watch the world’s top marathoners clash in a contest dubbed ‘race of the year.’
But in the past 45 years that the race has been held, Kenyans have claimed a bigger slice of the glory. Their spectacular performances have lent colour to the streets of London, the battle between Kenyans and Ethiopians attracting a huge fan base through all the 19 turns in the London Marathon course.
From the starting point around Blackheath, south of the River Thames, the course takes runners through various landmarks like River Thames, Big Ben, London Eye, the Tower Bridge, Canary Whaff, the Buckingham Palace, to the finish at The Mall.
It is estimated that the London Marathon is watched by 100 million viewers annually, and that helps showcase London’s features. The city has wide clean tree-clustered streets, with the Union Jack hanging conspicuously throughout the 42km route.
But one feature of the race does not go unnoticed – the men’s race is a textbook example of age variance. The upshot? Alexander Munyao beat a classy line-up that had Eliud Kipchoge, the Greatest Marathoner of All Time, in the 2024 edition.
It will be a spectacular sight to behold as 28-year-old Munyao leads a legion of youngsters, among them Uganda’s 24-year-old Jacob Kiplimo and home runners Emile Cairess and Mahamed Mahamed who are both aged 27, against the seniors brigade.
Interestingly, when Kiplimo was a year old in 2001, Kenenisa Bekele who pulled out of the race on Wednesday, was claiming silver medal in the world cross country 4km race in in Ostend, Belgium.
Similarly, Kipchoge won the World Athletics Championships 5,000m title in 2003 when Munyao was seven years old, and in Class One! Interesting age stats on the starting line.
Alexander Munyao won his first World Marathon Major race in London in 2024, leaving his peers in Ndithini village in Kakuswi, Makueni County, in awe.
Unlike his competitors in London who were inspired by a huge pool of marathon stars in their localities, Munyao sought inspiration from former world marathon record holder Patrick Makau.
As a secondary schoolboy at Kiteta Boys High School in Makueni County, he met coach Peter Muteti who spotted his talent during school games and offered to mentor him. The rest is history.
Uganda's Jacob Kiplimo, born in November 2000, grew up in the Bukwo area in Mount Elgon.
He made history in 2016 when, at the age of 15, he became Uganda’s youngest Olympian, competing in the 5,000m race at the 2026 Rio de Janeiro Games. The following year, he won the World Under 20 title at the World Cross Country Championships at Kololo ceremonial grounds in Kampala, Uganda.
He made his senior debut in 2020, winning the world half marathon title in Gdynia, Poland, before setting the world record in 21km of 57.31 in Lisbon. Kiplimo then won the 2023 World Cross Country Championships title in Bathurst, Australia.
Shattered the world record
On February 17 this year, Kiplimo became the first man to run the half marathon below 57 minutes as he shattered the world record by 48 seconds in Barcelona.
He posted a hair-raising 56.42 all-time mark to eclipse Ethiopian Yomif Kejelcha's previous world record of 57:30 set in Valencia in October.
Kiplimo's time is the best single improvement on the men's world half marathon record. Questions linger as to whether he will stage a similar performance feat on the streets of London on Sunday.
Kiplimo, who speaks fluent Kalenjin, is a darling of Kenya’s Kalenjin vernacular radio stations in post-race interviews, thanks to his flashy smiles on the finishing line.
Undoubtedly, East Africa’s athletics fertile grounds of Kapsisywo in Nandi County, Bekoji in Ethiopia and Bukwo in Uganda will be well represented in the quest for London Marathon crown.
These regions share a success story. Kipchoge comes from Kapsisywo village in Nandi County while Bekele was born in Bekoji village in Ethiopia’s Great Rift Valley, some 300km south of Addis Ababa, where there are plenty of goats and cows on the roads. Kiplimo, Olympic champion Joshua Cheptegei and Olympics 3000m steeplechase silver medallist Peruth Chemutai of Uganda are from Bukwo and train in Kapchorwa District.
Like Nandi County, Bekoji is at a high altitude. It stands at 10,500 feet above sea level, and is arable, giving rise to crops like tea, cereals, coffee and oil seeds. Bekele is the elder brother of Tariku Bekele, former world indoor 3,000m champion.
He comes from the same area Dibaba siblings Genzebe, Tirunesh and Ejegayehu. Their cousin Derartu Tulu became Africa’s first woman to win gold medal in 10,000m when she triumphed in 1992 Barcelona Olympics.
Bekele is a triple Olympic champion and two-time world record-holder on the track. He is the world’s third fastest marathoner, following his victory in the 2019 Berlin Marathon which he won in 2:03.41.
Three-time Olympics 10,000 metres champion, Kenenisa Bekele’s father was reportedly opposed to his son’s athletics career but relented when he saw it was driven by religious faith.
Bekele’s father said he named the young man ‘Kenenisa’ which means ‘you brought me delight’ in the Oromo language. Kipchoge means ‘one born by the granary’ in the Kalenjin community.
Just like Bekoji area, Kipchoge’s birthplace also boasts a number of world-beating athletes. They include 1992 Olympic Games 3,000m steeplechase silver medalist Patrick Sang, Kenyan-born American world champion Bernard Lagat, Amsterdam Marathon winner Vincent Kipchumba, Isaac Songok, and Marius Kipserem.
Bekele and Kipchoge have waged epic battles on the track in their storied careers. At the 2003 World Athletics Championships in Paris, Kipchoge, then 18, won one of the greatest races of all time, defeating Bekele (the greatest long-distance runner ever) and Hicham El Guerrouj (the greatest miler ever).
Five years later, Bekele turned the tables on Kipchoge, producing arguably the finest 5,000m performance in history to defeat the Kenyan for the Olympic title in Beijing.
In four head-to-head encounters, Kipchoge has come out on top comfortably each time, defeating Bekele by 1:40 at the 2014 Chicago Marathon, 3:31 at the 2016 London Marathon, and winning the 2017 Berlin Marathon in a world-leading 2:03:32, in a race that Bekele could not even finish. Kipchoge and Bekele failed to impress at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. It remains to be seen whether age variance will play a role in the 2025 London Marathon.
Eliud Kipchoge born September 4, 1984 (40)
Alexander Munyao born September 10, 1996 (28)
Kenenisa Bekele born June 13, 1982 (42)
Jacob Kiplimo born November 14, 2000 (24)
Mahamed Mahamed born September 18, 1997 (27)
Hendrik Pfeiffer born March 18, 1993 (31)
Emile Cairess born December 27, 1997: (27)
Callum Kawkins born June 22, 1992 (32)
Mosinet Geremew born February 12, 1992 (33)
Tamirat Tola born August 11, 1991 (34)
