Another blow for London Marathon as Peres Jepchirchir withdraws

The London Marathon’s women’s elite field has lost another of its star names after the news that 2024 champion Peres Jepchirchir won’t be on the start line.

The Kenyan is the reigning world champion over 26.2 miles and when the London fields were first announced it looked like we were going to get the first clash between herself, Olympic champion Sifan Hassan and 2025 London winner Tigst Assefa since the trio met at the Paris Games in 2024.

They are also the last three winners in London but it was announced in March that Dutch star Hassan had been ruled out after being hampered by an Achilles injury following an unfortunate incident while training on the treadmill.

And now she has been joined on the sidelines by Jepchirchir, who won the Olympic title in Tokyo in 2021.

Stress fracture after Valencia

A media release from the London Marathon on Tuesday [14 April] read: “Jepchirchir suffered a stress fracture after racing in the Valencia Marathon last December, an injury that delayed the start of her training block for the 2026 TCS London Marathon.

“The 32-year-old has now made the decision that she has not had enough time to sufficiently prepare for the TCS London Marathon and has today announced her withdrawal.”

Jepchirchir herself said: “It is with great sadness that I have withdrawn from the TCS London Marathon. After racing in Valencia, I was diagnosed with a stress fracture and I was only able to resume training in late January.

“I know that to be competitive at the TCS London Marathon you have to be at your top level and despite my best efforts, I’m just short of that due to my lack of training. I wish everyone racing the best of luck and look forward to returning to the TCS London Marathon in future years.”

Assefa the one to beat

All of which means Ethiopia’s Assefa will be favourite to defend her title after she set a women-only world record of 2:15:50 in the race 12 months ago.

Her quickest marathon time of 2:11:53 from Berlin in 2023 is more than two minutes faster than the next best of Joyciline Jepkosgei of Kenya.

Jepkosgei ran the fourth-fastest time in history to win the 2025 Valencia Marathon in 2:14:00 and triumphed in London in 2021.

Her fellow Kenyan Hellen Obiri will be a threat too. She is making her London debut but has two New York City Marathon titles (2023 and 2025) and two Boston Marathon victories to her name (2023 and 2024) since moving up to the marathon distance.