Lemma crowned new men's London Marathon champion

Ethiopia's Sisay Lemma is the 2021 men's Virgin Money London Marathon champion.

Lemma's victory came in two hours, four minutes and a second. He beat Kenyan and last year's runner up Vincent Kipchumba who finished in 2:04:28 despite leading for the better part of the race.

Mosinet Geremew of Ethiopia was third after clocking 2:04:41 while the outgoing champion Shura Kitata who gained fame for dethroning Eliud Kipchoge in last year's edition finished sixth. Kitata who appeared to struggle in the early stages of the race thanks to an harmstring setback while Titus Ekiru, who has run the fastest time this year dropped midway thanks to an injury.

Before last year, Kipchoge had won four of the five editions of the marathon and sat out this year having defended his Olympic title eight weeks ago in the difficult conditions in Japan.

Lemma's victory is certainly a fruit of hard work having failed in the last eight major marathons he had participated. He finished third last year and settled for seventh place finish in 2016.

He was third in last year's Tokyo Marathon and also settled for bronze in Berlin.Lemma had a tough outing during the 2019 Boston Marathon where he finished 30th and finished a place outside the podium in 2017's Chicago Marathon and failed to complete the Boston race held the same year.He was fourth in Berlin in 2016.

Lemma who covered the half marathon in 1:01:26 carefully trailed Kipchumba and Legese Birhanu and would surge past them and sprint to victory, cutting the tape 27 seconds ahead of Kipchumba.

Evans Chebet, the other Kenyan who remained on the course after Ekiru dropped off clocked 2:05:43 to finish fourth behind Mosinet.