Men’s 2025 London Marathon Preview

This is marathon running’s Redeem Team. Except imagine the USA dominated in 2004, decided to make the redeem team anyway, also put MJ on the team, somehow revived Wilt Chamberlain and added him to the roster, and threw in Tiger Woods just to see what would happen.

The men’s 2025 London Marathon will feature:

• The defending champion

• The reigning Olympic champion

• The debut of a man who just obliterated the half marathon world record

• The fastest marathon debutant alive

• The distance running GOAT

• The marathon running GOAT

• The Olympic triathlon champion (because why not?)

Between them, these men have racked up a stupefying 60 World Championship and Olympic medals, only 11 of which involved swimming (thanks, Alex Yee).

Alexander Munya (L) and Kenenisa Bekele (R) lead the 2024 London Marathon

The Defending Champion

I can’t remember the last time I wrote a preview in which the defending champion was the least notable name of them all, so, sorry, Alexandar Munyao – if you’d gone to any other race, you would have received a much longer and more generous section! Twice a 2:03 runner, Munyao dismantled a pretty stacked field last year to win his first World Marathon Major (and on World Marathon Major debut, no less) but struggled uncharacteristically at the Olympics, crossing the line in 21st. Of course, one bad result doesn’t mean much in isolation – eventual Olympic champion Tamirat Tola dropped out of this very race 12 months ago – and, with a comfortable half marathon victory already added to his 2025 resume, the relatively undecorated 28-year-old should have a good chance of defending his title on the 27th of April.

The Olympic Champion

Speaking of the Olympic champion, Tola will also be returning to the English capital later this month. The Ethiopian had an up-and-down year in 2024: his crowning moment obviously came in the form of gold in Paris, but a DNF in London and a fourth-place finish in New York have left some question marks hanging over his form. If one bad result doesn’t mean much in isolation, then neither does one good result, and the Olympic champ will need to produce something special in London if he wants to re-enter the conversation as the best marathon runner in the world. Tola is one of the only athletes in history to tick off the big three accomplishments of this event (a World Marathon Major win, a World Championship, and an Olympic Championship), so he should be able to provide plenty of resistance against Munyao.

Tamirat Tola crosses the line to win the 2024 Olympic Marathon

The Newcomers

Then, there are Jacob Kiplimo and Sebastian Sawe. For two men who have run just one marathon between them, they sure are generating a lot of hype ahead of this year’s race.

Ask any running fan which family has produced the fastest distance running men, and most will point to the Ingebrigtsens. Well, as is always the case in this sport, there is a far worse paid, far less known, and far more East African band of brothers with an even shinier trophy cabinet than that of their Norwegian counterparts. While the Ingebrigtsens have won a pathetic 12 global medals between them (and yes, 11 of them have been courtesy of Jakob), Jacob and his brothers have pulled together a mind-boggling 13! And, with more than half of them being gold, it’s a big win for team non-silent J.

All jokes aside, Jacob Kiplimo was quite literally built for the marathon. Not only was his brother a World Marathon Champion, but a 2019 study by Dessalew et al. found that a height of around 1.75m and a weight of around 56kg were the ideal dimensions for a male marathon runner. Care to venture a guess as to how tall and heavy the Ugandan is?

But genetics are hardly why people are so excited about Kiplimo’s presence in London. Two months ago, Kiplimo obliterated the half marathon world record when he ran 56:42 to knock almost a minute off the existing mark. In World Athletics speak, that’s a time worth 1323 points – equivalent to 1:59:46 over double the distance. Jack Daniels’ VDOT calculator, the most famous time conversion calculator in the sport, has been even more generous, equating the performance to a 1:58:40. In fact, you can pick any calculator you want: the maths always shows that Kiplimo’s leg melting half marathon world record is worth a sub-two-hour marathon, confirming a prediction made by Italian coach Giuseppe Giambrone almost a decade ago.

Jacob Kiplimo breaks the half marathon world record

In the rolling hills around Tuscany, Giambrone, who turned Kiplimo into the youngest distance runner in Olympic history, witnessed sessions from the teenager that made him believe in a sub-two-hour marathon in a world before Nike’s Breaking2 Project.

“I spoke with people and said in the future 1:58, 1:59 in the marathon is possible but Jacob was only 15 years old,” said the Italian.

Fast forward nine years and the now 24-year-old is putting the final touches on his marathon debut preparations. While there’s no indication that Kiplimo will target the world record in London – Giambrone (who no longer coaches him) has *cautiously* predicted 2:01 – you can be almost certain that he will be contending for the win.

The half marathon world record holder will be joined by the Half Marathon World Champion Sebastian Sawe, who, four months ago, became the second-fastest marathon debutant in history (behind only the late marathon world record holder, Kelvin Kiptum) when he crushed the field at the Valencia Marathon in 2:02:05 to put himself at number five on the all-time list. While Sawe isn’t receiving quite the same attention as Kiplimo, he does have one distinct advantage over his Ugandan counterpart in that he has actually run one of these before. If the marathon punishes Kiplimo in the way it does so many debutants, I expect Sawe to step in and pick up his first World Marathon Major win.

Sebastian Sawe wins the 2024 Valencia Marathon on debut

The Legends

Astonishingly, the four men I’ve mentioned so far have only won two World Marathon Majors between them. These next two men combine for 13.

What is there left to say about Eliud Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele? The antithesis of the inexperienced Kiplimo and Sawe, these two legends are respectively recognised as the marathon GOAT and the distance running GOAT. Kipchoge is a two-time Olympic marathon champion, an 11-time World Marathon Majors winner, and the former world record holder; Bekele, a three-time Olympic champion, four-time world record breaker, and 18-time World Champion.

Twenty-two years ago, Kipchoge beat Bekele to the world 5000m title in Paris: in the two decades that followed, the pair established themselves as the two greatest runners from the two greatest running nations in history. Last year, the duo had their full-circle moment, returning to the city where the fires of their careers had been lit to put the dying embers of their extraordinary legacies on display: Bekele finished 39th in the Olympic marathon and Kipchoge dropped out just after halfway.

Now both in their 40s, the pair will head to London in hopes of delaying the rise of their much younger rivals. And, while they are well past their prime, only those with a very short memory would rule them out.

For starters, Bekele, 42, almost won this race last year. Pushing hard along The Embankment, the Ethiopian managed to rid himself of all bar one of his rivals and looked for a moment as though he might win his first race since 2020. Alas, Alexander Munyao eventually outkicked his Ethiopian rival, but the final gap was only 14 seconds, and Bekele still ended up finishing more than two and a half minutes clear of third place.

Unlike Bekele, Kipchoge didn’t find his way onto a podium last year. A 10th place finish in Tokyo and a DNF at the Olympics were the only two items on his 2024 scoresheet, but you need only venture back a few more months to find his most recent success story: a 2:02:42 to win an unprecedented fifth Berlin Marathon title in the September of 2023. True, he hasn’t had a good race since, but if Bekele can come second in London at 41, there’s no reason why Kipchoge can’t pull off a similar feat at 40. While I don’t think either man will win, I do think they’ll both play a big part in the final outcome of the race.

Eliud Kipchoge (L) and Kenenisa Bekele (R) bump fists on the start line of the 2024 Olympic Marathon

It’s a testament to the depth of this field that I’ve not had the space to mention names like 2:02:55 runner Timothy Kiplagat, reigning Berlin Marathon champion and 2:03:17 man Milkesa Mengesha, three-time World Marathon Major medallist Mohamed Esa, or reigning New York Marathon champion and former Olympic silver medallist Abdi Nageeye. I’m not actually sure if you can bet on the London Marathon, but if you can, don’t: there are ten men capable of winning in the English capital later this month, and I wouldn’t even be confident enough putting money on a medallist, let alone a winner. What a race we have in store for us.

To read my preview of the women’s race, click here.