The London Marathon on April 27 will feature the first head-to-head matchup between Olympic women’s marathon gold medalists in decades.
The women’s elite field includes Paris Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, Tokyo Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya and world record holder Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya.
Plus Ethiopian Tigst Assefa, meaning the field includes the three fastest women in history: Chepngetich (2:09:56), Assefa (2:11:53) and Hassan (2:13:44).
Hassan and Jepchirchir would be the first Olympic women’s marathon gold medalists to race head-to-head over 26.2 miles since Ethiopian Fatuma Roba and Russian Valentina Yegorova went one-two at the 2004 Nagano Marathon in Japan, according to Tilastopaja.
In Paris, Hassan won marathon gold after bronze in the 5000m and 10,000m. She became the second person to win a medal in the three longest races at one Olympics after Czech Emil Zátopek, who won all three in 1952.
Hassan won the London Marathon in 2023 in her debut at the distance.
“London is also where I learned to be patient, to trust myself, and to keep pushing even when it feels impossible,” she said in a press release. “It is a place where I grew, not just as an athlete, but as a person.”
Jepchirchir is the only person to win the Olympic, Boston and New York City Marathons over a career. She did so in an eight-month span in 2021 and 2022.
This past Oct. 13, Chepngetich lowered the world record to 2:09:56, becoming the first woman to break 2:10 in the marathon and shattering Assefa’s previous record by 1:57.
The London Marathon men’s field includes Paris Olympic gold medalist Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, plus Olympic and world 10,000m bronze medalist Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda in his 26.2-mile debut.
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