Emmanuel Mutai and Mary Keitany seal a Kenyan double at the 2011 London Marathon!

On Sunday Kenya became the country everyone was talking about with Kenyan athletes Emmanuel Mutai and Mary Keitany scooping the two top prizes at the London Marathon after running spectacular races and winning both the men’s and women’s titles.

Emmanuel Mutai won the men's race in an astonishing two hours, four minutes and 39 seconds - breaking the London record and scoring a personal best. Mutai ran what seemed to be an almost effortless race, finishing a full minute and five seconds before second placed runner, Martin Lel. With his winning performance, Mutai became the 9th runner to dip under the 2:05 barrier for the marathon, joining an elite field headed by fellow countryman and marathon legend Paul Tergat, as well as Kenya’s Sammy Korir and Ethiopia’s Haile Gebrselassie.

Mary Keitany became the second fastest woman to win the London Marathon after Britain’s Paula Radcliffe in 2003, who retains the incredible world-record of two hours, fifteen minutes and 25 seconds. The Kenyan, who was running in only her second marathon, won in two hours, nineteen minutes and 19 seconds, making her the joint-fourth fastest woman of all time over the 26.2 mile distance.

The 29-year-old Keitany, who already holds the world record for the half marathon, had finished third in her debut over the full distance in New York last year. On Sunday, however, she made a 10-minute improvement on that time to run an impressive race – breaking away from the pack after 18 miles and building a lead of 27 seconds. That was stretched to 67 seconds by the end as she finished ahead of the defending champion Liliya Shobukhova of Russia.

In the wheelchair race, David Weir, Britain’s leading wheelchair athlete on the track and the road, yesterday won an unprecedented fifth title in the Virgin London Wheelchair Marathon. Weir broke early, stayed in the slipstream of world record-holder Heinz Frei for the final 10 kilometres, then burst past the Swiss on The Mall. It was tactical perfection from the paralympic champion.

However, if the men’s wheelchair race was close, then the women’s was even closer with a nail-biting finish as American Amanda McGrory just edged past Britain Shelly Woods in an all-out sprint finish at the finishing line as both athletes gave everything they had.

Of course, elite athletes aside, the heart and soul of the London marathon is, without a doubt, the thousands of amateurs and fun-runners who take part in this race every year. More than 36,500 runners took to the streets on Sunday to help raise money and awareness for countless charities and organisations this year. If not for them, the London Marathon would not be what it is.

So, from NCC Education, here’s a big congratulations to all the runners, including all the NCC Education students and former students who took part!! Well done!!

Click here to see the official London Marathon website

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