Two withdrawals that would have shattered any other marathon on the planet, and London didn’t even flinch.
With reigning Olympic champion Sifan Hassan and World champion Peres Jepchirchir both pulling out of the 2026 TCS London Marathon — one battling an Achilles injury, the other a stress fracture — the stage was set for chaos.
Instead, what remains is arguably more compelling.
Three of the world’s top six ranked women from 2025 are lining up on Sunday, April 26, and the race is shaping up to be one of the most fascinating three-way battles women’s marathon running has seen in years.
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A Three-Horse Race Nobody Saw Coming
Defending champion Tigst Assefa, two-time New York City Marathon champion Hellen Obiri, and 2025’s fastest woman Joyciline Jepkosgei are the headliners — and any one of them could be standing at the finish line with her arms in the air.
The professional women start at 9:05 a.m. BST on Sunday morning, with favorable conditions on tap: partly cloudy skies, temperatures in the low-to-mid 50s Fahrenheit, and light easterly winds of just 3–8 mph.
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Fast times are very much on the table.
Assefa Is Chasing History — Again
Tigst Assefa doesn’t do things quietly. Since appearing seemingly out of nowhere to win Berlin in 2022 with a 2:15:37 clocking, the Ethiopian has redefined what elite women’s marathon running looks like.
She followed that debut with a jaw-dropping 2:11:53 world record at the 2023 Berlin Marathon — a mark that has since been broken — and then won London last year in 2:15:50, setting a world record for a women’s-only race.
Now she wants more.
My training has gone well, it has been better, even, than my preparation last year, so I think it is possible to beat the record I set last year. If I am going to try to break the world record again, the pacemaking has to be important. I am expecting the time that the pacemakers will set for the half distance will be allowing me to run faster than the record last year.
Should Assefa surpass her own women’s-only world record, she could also threaten Paula Radcliffe’s London course record of 2:15:25, set back in 2003 with the help of male pacers — a mark that has stood for over two decades.
The Biggest Unknown in Women’s Marathon Running Right Now
Here’s a question that has quietly been building in the distance running world for years: just how fast can Hellen Obiri run when given a flat course and a proper pacemaking setup?
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Nobody actually knows. And that’s what makes Sunday so fascinating.
The 36-year-old Kenyan has run eight marathons in her career, winning four of them. But she has consistently chosen New York, Boston, and the Olympics over the fast, flat courses like Berlin and Valencia where rivals have been posting 2:13s and 2:14s for years. Her personal best sits at just 2:17:41, set at Boston last year.
London will be her first serious crack at a rabbitted, record-eligible race — and her coach, Dathan Ritzenhein, believes the ceiling is extraordinary.
Hellen never ceases to amaze me. I always think well, she can’t get fitter or better. But she seems to do that.
Ritzenhein told LetsRun that back when Obiri won New York in 2023, he believed she was capable of running 2:11 on a course like Valencia or Berlin with ideal conditions and pacers. He’s even more bullish now.
She tuned up for London by winning the NYC Half Marathon on March 15 in 66:33 — beating Sharon Lokedi, who just dominated the Boston Marathon, by a stunning 37 seconds.
Winning Is the Only Thing on Obiri’s Mind
Don’t expect Ritzenhein to be obsessing over split times on Sunday morning, though. His athlete is a racer, not a clock-watcher.
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At the end of the day, we still don’t really care what the time is there. Hellen’s just a competitor. For her, winning the race is what it’s all about.
And Ritzenhein has already mapped out exactly how a victory could happen. In all three of Assefa’s career defeats, she was outkicked in the final 400 meters — by Jepchirchir at 2024 London and the 2025 World Championships, and by Hassan at the 2024 Olympics. Obiri, famously, wins races the exact same way.
If we get a pacer that goes to 30k, someone’s still gonna have to do the heavy lifting — and I’m not going to tell Hellen to do it. She’s the best at closing.
Assefa leads their head-to-head record, having beaten Obiri at the 2024 Olympics — though Obiri went into that race with a shortened buildup. Sunday is her shot at revenge on the biggest possible stage.
Don’t Sleep on Joyciline Jepkosgei
Lost in all the noise around Assefa and Obiri is a woman who has made the London Marathon podium in four consecutive appearances.
Jepkosgei won London in 2021, finished second in 2022, third in 2024, and runner-up again in 2025. The 32-year-old Kenyan then capped her year by winning Valencia in a personal best of 2:14:00, beating world champion Peres Jepchirchir by 43 seconds.
She also clocked a half marathon personal best of 64:13 in Barcelona — eighth-fastest in history. By any measure, 2025 was the finest year of her career.
Jepkosgei had a legitimate case for World Number One last season alongside Jepchirchir and Assefa — the three essentially ran a round-robin across London, the World Championships, and Valencia, each going 1-1 against the others. She will not be easy to shake on Sunday.
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- Solid cast iron build that feels stable and lasts for years
- Comfortable grip that makes high-rep workouts easier to handle
How It All Plays Out
With the withdrawals of Hassan and Jepchirchir, the field beyond the top three thins out quickly. Ethiopia’s Degitu Azimeraw is the only other entrant who has broken 2:20, and she hasn’t finished higher than sixth in a major since her runner-up showing at this very race back in 2021.
This is, by every indication, a three-woman race.
Assefa looks like the likeliest winner, and her strategy writes itself — push hard once the pacers peel off so the race never comes down to a final-stretch kick against Obiri. Whether she can execute that plan against two world-class competitors who have both proved they belong at this level is the question that will define Sunday morning in London.
One thing is certain: the women who withdrew weren’t the race. The race is what’s left.
