harriers five impress in london marathon

​There were five Morpeth Harriers amongst the 48,000 runners who pounded the streets of the capital on a damp Sunday morning for the 2023 TCS London Marathon.
 
This year’s race was certainly amongst the most memorable of recent times, with Kenyan Kelvin Kiptun running the second fastest marathon time ever to take the Men’s title in a new course record of 2 hours 1 minute 25 seconds, and Dutch track specialist Sifan Hassan winning on her marathon debut in 2:18:33.
 
Leeds City AC athletes Emile Cairess and Phil Sesemann, 6th and 8th respectively, were the first two GB athletes home, with Cairess’s time of 2:10:28 putting him third on the UK all-time list after Mo Farah and Steve Jones.
 
Meanwhile in his ninth London, marathon veteran Andrew Lawrence was first back in blue and white, finishing in 185th place in 2:32:03, and Andy was closely followed by Over 40s Ade Whitwam, 256th in 2:34:09, and Ian Harding, recording 2:34:36 (274th).
 
Rob Hancox put injury worries from training behind him to finish not far over the three hour mark in an impressive 3:06:35, and, in her first ever attempt at the distance, Linzi Quinn clocked a very respectable 3:47:54.