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With about 200m to go, Hassan charged up as she took the top honours to cut the tape ahead of Megertu and Jpechirchir.
Dutch debutant Sifan Hassan is the 2023 London Marathon champion after obliterating a strong field at Sunday's, April 23 race.
The race started off with Brigid Kosgei being a victim of a hamstring injury and was dropped off by the leading pack two minutes into the race.
Kosgei was then forced to unfortunately withdraw after the pain persisted leaving the mantle to Olympic champion Jepchirchir.
Passing through the 5km mark, Jepchirchir was leading a group of 10 strong women including the 2022 Amsterdarm Marathon champion Almaz Ayana, defending champion Yehualaw and compatriots Sheila Chepkirui and Judith Jeptum Korir.
Jepchirchir was still leading the pack of 10 as they passed the 10km mark with Dibaba slightly behind her. As the group was passing through the 15km mark, Korir had taken the mantle as Jepchirchir followed closely. Dibaba, the 1500m women’s world record holder, was closely following Jepchirchir.
As the women were passing through the 20km mark, double Olympic Champion Sifan Hassan had been dropped off as Jepchirchir edged Korir to take the lead.
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08:14 - 22.04.2023
ATHLETICS Peres Jepchirchir eyeing world record in London Marathon
The Kenyan will be lining up as the third fastest in the field with a personal best time of 2:17:16.
However, Korir seemed to be Jepchirchir’s greatest challenger as she took the lead at the 21km mark with the leading park now having eight women.
Jepchirchir then took the mantle as the athletes passed through the 30km mark as Chepkirui emerged from behind to take second place. Yehualaw was comfortably running behind Chepkirui.
As the women passed the 35km mark, the pack had now been dropped to four athletes including little-known Alemu Megertu, Jepchirchir, Chepkirui, and Yehualaw. Dibaba and Ayana had been dropped and they were leading the chasing pack.
With two km to go, the battle was now between Jepchirchir, Hassan, Megertu, Yehualaw, and Chepkirui. However, Chepkirui seemed to be struggling and could not keep up with the trio.
With about 200m to go, Hassan charged up as she took the top honours to cut the tape ahead of Megertu and Jpechirchir. She cut the tape in 2:18:34 as Megertu came second in 2:18:37 while Jepchirchir placed third in 2:18:38.
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