Virgin London Marathon – More than 35,000 to run the 33rd London Marathon

More than 35,000 runners have registered to start the 2013 Virgin London Marathon tomorrow.

When registration desks at the London Marathon Expo at the ExCel Centre in London's Docklands closed at 5pm this afternoon, a total of 35,079 accepted applicants for places in the race had picked up their running numbers and Ipico Sports Timing tags.

All runners were also given a black ribbon to wear in remembrance of those people affected by the bombings in Boston on Monday. Runners have been asked to observe a 30-second period of silence before the mass race starts at 10am tomorrow morning, and the London Marathon organisers will donate £2 for every finisher to The One Fund Boston, set up to raise money for the victims and families.

Around 34,500 runners are predicted to cross the finish line in The Mall at the end of the race when the weather is expected to be cool and dry.

Former London Marathon race director David Bedford will set the elite women on their way at 9am from Blackheath, an hour before he gets the mass race underway, led off by the elite men. The men's and women's wheelchair races will start at 9.20am, three minutes before athletes in the IPC Athletics Marathon World Cup begin their 26.2-mile journey from south east London to Westminster.

Among those competing for the prized London Marathon titles will be five London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic marathon champions, winners of 15 London 2012 athletics gold medals, and some of the quickest marathon runners ever to complete the famous distance.

Olympic champions Stephen Kiprotich and Tiki Gelana will make their London Marathon debuts in two of the toughest ever fields with many of the world's greatest marathon runners competing for prize money worth $313,000.

Kiprotich is hoping to be dragged to his best time in a men's race that includes three of the four fastest men in history – world record holder Partick Makau, defending champion Wilson Kipsang, and World Marathon Majors champion Geoffrey Mutai – while Gelana will start as favourite to come out on top against women's world champion Edna Kiplagat and Olympic silver medallist Priscah Jeptoo.

Britain's Paralympic champion David Weir is gunning for a record seventh London title in the men's wheelchair race, while Shelly Woods defends the women's wheelchair crown against Shirley Reilly, the American racer who beat her to Paralympic gold.

Hiroyuki Yamamoto and Tatyana McFadden lead the way in the Boston-London Wheelchair Challenge after winning the Boston Marathon races on Monday. Twenty-two athletes are competing in both events with $10,000 on offer to each man and woman who comes out on top overall.

Richard Whitehead will attract much attention in the IPC World Cup when he competes in one of the two races for athletes with limb impairments. Whitehead runs in the T42 race while Brazil's Paralympic champion Tito Sena will start as favourite in the T44/46 category. Former ballet dancer Ivonne Mosquera-Schmidt is one of 15 athletes in the three races for runners with visual impairments.

On the domestic front, the progress of Britain's Mo Farah at the head of the elite field will be closely watched. The double Olympic champion is running to half way as ‘a learning exercise' before making his full marathon debut here next year.

His former training partner, Scott Overall, hopes to get to the finish line as first Briton to claim his place in the national team for the Moscow World Championships this summer. Amy Whitehead and Susan Partridge will battle it out for the honour of being first British woman.

Behind them some 35,000 club runners, joggers, Guinness world record chasers and charity fundraisers will pound the capital's streets for their own personal targets, whether measured in pounds raised, or hours, minutes and seconds on the clock.

Among them will be the usual array of fancy dress costumes and well-known faces. Alongside Fire Marshal Foamy and Bruce the gorilla will be former England cricket captain Andrew Strauss, athlete Kelly Sotherton and reality TV star Amy Childs, to name just a few.

First across the line will be the best young runners and wheelchair racers in the country competing for honours in the Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon.

The event will have a Royal flavour too, thanks to Prince Harry who will be joined in The Mall by Sir Richard Branson to present trophies to the top three finishers in the elite men's, women's, wheelchair and IPC races.

 

Source: Virgin London Marathon Organisers