Dates April 2010 | ||
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Women Aselefech Mergia (2:22:38) (Elite)Wakako Tsuchida (1:52:33) (Wheelchair) | ||
The 2010 London Marathon took place on Sunday, 25 April 2010. Up to 36,000 people are thought to have taken part, a record for the event. The men's event was won by Tsegaye Kebede of Ethiopia with a time of 2:05:19 and the women's event by Aselefech Mergia of Ethiopia with a time of 2:22:38, a position moved up after numerous disqualifications for doping. Kebede became the first non-Kenyan to win the men's event in seven years. The men's wheelchair event was won by Josh Cassidy of Canada with a time of 1:35:21 while Wakako Tsuchida of Japan won the women's wheelchair event.
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The event saw 74 world record attempts, including one involving 34 runners bound together by bungee cord to form a "human caterpillar", among whom was Princess Beatrice of York, the fifth in line to the British throne, who became the first royal family member to participate in the marathon. Of the attempts, 41 were successful. The marathon was sponsored by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group, having signed a five-year contract, taking over from previous sponsors, Flora. Branson also ran the marathon for his first time.
Prior to the marathon, there had been concerns that the air-travel disruption caused by the 2010 eruptions of Eyjafjallajökull could disrupt the event, though many athletes from outside of the United Kingdom were brought in by an aircraft specially chartered from Spain.
Both of the 2009 winners, Samuel Wanjiru and Irina Mikitenko, were present to defend their titles. However, neither athlete managed to finish the race as they both stopped around the mid-way point.