Dates 22 April 2012 | ||
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Venue London, England, United Kingdom Men Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich (2:04:44) (Elite)
David Weir (1:32:26) (Wheelchair) Women Mary Keitany (2:18:37) (Elite)
Shelly Woods (1:49:10) (Wheelchair) | ||
The 2012 London Marathon took place in London, England, on Sunday 22 April 2012. It was the 32nd running of the annual mass-participation marathon race and the second World Marathon Majors event to be held that year. A total of 35,970 people started the race – the third highest total in the event's history.
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Both of the elite races were won by Kenyan athletes, and Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede was the only non-Kenyan to reach the podium in either race. Mary Keitany won the women's elite race for the second year running with a Kenyan record time of 2:18:37 hours. Wilson Kipsang was the men's race winner with a time of 2:04:44 – four seconds off Emmanuel Mutai's course record set at the 2011 London Marathon. The top British finishers, Lee Merrien (17th) and Claire Hallissey (11th), earned the opportunity to compete for Great Britain at the 2012 Summer Olympics. The wheelchair races were won by two British athletes: David Weir took the men's title while Shelly Woods was the women's winner.
A fun runner, Claire Squires, died after collapsing in the final mile of the race. In response to publicity of her death, the general public made donations to her fund raising page at the Justgiving website. Over 80,000 separate donations were made, raising a total of over £930,000 for Samaritans.