London Marathon 2009

Image By 762_AK's photostream Flickr

More than 35,000 competitors finished the London Marathon today, the last ever to be sponsored by Flora.

By 7pm this evening 35,306 had finished after Sir Chris Hoy had set 35,747 on their way from Greenwich this morning, the second largest field in London Marathon history. 36,156 had registered to run by close of play on Saturday from nearly 50,000 accepted applications.

At the end of 26.2 miles it was the Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru who led them home, the Kenyan winning the fastest men's elite race since the London Marathon started in 1981.

Wanjiru crossed the line in a course record of 2:05:10 with Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia second in 2:05:20 and Jaouad Gharib of Morocco third in 2:05:27 – the second time in two years that three men have run quicker than 2 hours 6 minutes.

Germany's Irina Mikitenko defended her title to win the elite women's race in 2:22:11 while Mara Yamauchi gave more than 750,000 spectators cause to cheer as the Briton finished second in 2:23:12, breaking her personal best by nearly two minutes. Russia's Liliya Shobukhova was third on her marathon debut, clocking 2:24:24.

Australian Kurt Fearnley beat Britain's David Weir in a sprint finish to win the men's wheelchair race in a course record of 1:28:56, while American Amanda McGrory took the women's wheelchair title in 1:50:39 just ahead of last year's champion Sandra Graf of Switzerland.

Among the masses of personal triumphs on a beautiful Spring day, 10 Guinness World Records were broken including the fastest marathon dressed as Santa Claus (2:55:50 by Paul Simons), the fastest marathon dressed as a vegetable (3:34:55 by Robert Prothero) and the fastest fruit (4:19:37 by Thomas Day).

Were you there? Did you take part? What's your story?