Ethiopia’s Tigist Tufa ends Kenyan dominance

Twenty six miles later and the 37,500 people that took place in today’s London Marathon are all done!

Everyone maybe talking about record holder Paula Radcliffe who ran her final race in two hours 36 minutes 55 seconds but Lollipop would prefer to talk about the winner. Ethiopia’s Tigist Tufa made beating Kenya’s two-time London winner Mary Keitany look easy as she sprinted clear to finish in  two hours twenty three minutes twenty two seconds. With three miles to go Tufa and compatriot Tirfi Tsegaye broke away from the rest, the champ then moved 18 seconds clear to win.

The 28-year-old was a surprise winner as only the ninth-fastest in the field but looking at her previous success maybe she should not have been.

Tuga has won major marathons in her career most recently the 2014 Shanghai Marathon where she set a new course record and a personal best time of  two hours twenty one minutes and fifty two seconds.

But today our champ set a new career high. Her major win ended four years of domination by Kenya’s women in the capital.

Despite Kenya’s victory in the men’s race with Eliud Kipchoge finishing ahead of last years winner and record holder Wilson Kipsang in a time of two hours four minutes 42 seconds the women could not complete the country’s domination.

Lollipop believes this could be the start of a new rivalry in women’s marathon racing as more and more runners step up their game to compete with Kenya’s greatest athletes.

The race had been billed as a four-way fight between a quartet of Kenyans: defending champion Edna Kiplagat, two-time former champion Keitany, half-marathon world record holder Florence Kiplagat and Priscah Jeptoo, the winner in 2013.

Champion Tufa had barely been mentioned in the build-up, but the slow pace played into her hands and she produced a 25th mile of 5mins 07secs to beat her rivals.

Last year former champ Kiplagat finished in two hours twenty minutes twenty one seconds – five minutes short of Radcliffe’s record breaking time. The race was much quicker but the sluggish start today made things more competitive. When speaking to BBC Sport even Tufa said: “The weather was very difficult for me and I found it a very slow race until the end and I was pushed.”

So the weather may have weakened Kenya’s defence but it did not stop a record breaking amount of entrants running the marathon this year.

Whether it was down to Paula’s last appearance or the This Girl Can campaign women were running in force today.

The oldest woman running in 2015 was Iva Barr, 87, born 23 October 1927 and the youngest was Paige Brown, 18 years two days, born 24 April 1997.

Lollipop would like to congratulate them all. They may not be the Kenyan or Ethiopian elites but they took part. Gold medals all round.