Kenya's Priscah Jeptoo crossing the finishing line
Kenya's Priscah Jeptoo took advantage of a dramatic fall by Olympic champion Tiki Gelana to win the London Marathon.After Gelana was involved in a collision with Canadian wheelchair racer
Josh Cassidy, Jeptoo won in two hours, 20 minutes and 15 seconds.
In the men's race, Ethiopian Tsegaye Kebede overhauled 2011 champion
Emmanuel Mutai in the closing stages for his second win in 2:06:04,
reports the BBC.Britain's David Weir missed out on a seventh wheelchair crown, ending fifth.Earlier, the women's elite and men's wheelchair races converged at a
water station, ending the challenges of both Gelana and Cassidy.
Gelana, part of the leading pack at the 15km mark, cut across the path of Cassidy as she attempted to collect a drink.The Ethiopian fell and her leg appeared to go under Cassidy's chair. She rejoined the race, but faded in clear discomfort.With Gelana out of contention, Jeptoo, the 2012 Olympic silver
medallist, pulled clear to take victory ahead of compatriot Edna
Kiplagat and Japan's Yoko Shibui.
"Today I'm very, very happy, I couldn't believe I could be the winner,"
Jeptoo told BBC Sport. "It is a very tough race because everybody who
comes here is really prepared."
Great Britain's Susan Partridge came ninth in a time of 2:30:46, enough for a place at the World Championships in August.In the wheelchair event, the crash ended Cassidy's participation in a
race that was won by Australia's Kurt Fearnley . He emerged from the
pack in a sprint finish that left the tiring Weir trailing."It's something I have mentioned before," said Cassidy. "I don't know
who's responsible, but every year we come to overtake the women, there's
10 chairs going at 20mph and the poor women are scrambling to find
their feet.
"I have a brand new $2,000 pair of wheels that are damaged, who's going to pay for them? Things have to change."The safest thing would be to have the chairs start first because one
of these years a woman, is going to have a leg broken, a career ruined.
It's just not worth having this programme if the races are going to
suffer."In the men's elite race, Mutai looked to have built a winning lead
after Great Britain's double Olympic champion Mo Farah withdrew as
planned at the halfway stage.
But, with around 1km remaining, Kebede, who was controversially omitted
from the Ethiopia team for the 2012 Olympics, breezed past unchallenged
to repeat his London success of 2010.
Ethiopian Ayele Abshero finished third, with Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda sixth.
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