Defending champion Alexander Munyao and returning Eliud Kipchoge are among the elite athletes that will carry Kenya’s flag during the London Marathon set for Sunday, April 27, 2025.

Kipchoge is returning to the London course, hoping to beat his younger rivals and etch his name in history books. Six men with sub-2:04 personal bests are going to race, meaning the event will be a very competitive one.

Munyao won the men’s race in 2:04:01 in 2024 and has twice dipped under 2:04 – both times in Valencia – setting his personal best of 2:03:11 in 2023. He placed 21st in the Olympic marathon in Paris but started the year with a 59:16 half marathon win in Marugame, as per World Athletics stats.

Munyao will face three men with faster personal bests. One of them is Kipchoge, the four-time London Marathon winner and two-time Olympic champion who clocked 2:01:09 in Berlin in 2022.

Kipchoge last featured in the London Marathon in 2020, and before that, he won in 2015, 2016, 2018, and 2019, and in the years since, he has triumphed in Tokyo and Berlin.

Sabastian Sawe is another contestant whose odds place him among the top possible winners. He will be competing in his second marathon, following his 2:02:05 debut in Valencia in December – the second-fastest debut in history behind the 2:01:53 achieved by the late Kelvin Kiptum in Valencia in 2022.

Sawe won the world half marathon title in 2023 and has a personal best for that distance of 58:05, while he has also clocked 26:49 for 10km.

Jacob Kiplimo will also race. The 24-year-old ran 56:42 in Barcelona in February to regain the world record and take 48 seconds off the previous global best – the greatest single improvement on the men’s world half marathon record. He won the world half marathon title in 2020, has world and Olympic bronze medals in the 10,000m, and is a two-time world cross-country champion.

Men’s elite list

Eliud Kipchoge (KEN) 2:01:09

Sabastian Sawe (KEN) 2:02:05

Timothy Kiplagat (KEN) 2:02:55

Alexander Mutiso Munyao (KEN) 2:03:11

Milkesa Mengesha (ETH) 2:03:17

Tamirat Tola (ETH) 2:03:39

Mohamed Esa (ETH) 2:04:39

Abdi Nageeye (NED) 2:04:45

Hillary Kipkoech (KEN) 2:04:45

Amanal Petros (GER) 2:04:58

Sondre Nordstad Moen (NOR) 2:05:48

Yemaneberhan Crippa (ITA) 2:06:06

Andrew Buchanan (AUS) 2:06:22

Mahamed Mahamed (GBR) 2:07:05

Philip Sesemann (GBR) 2:08:02

Adam Lipschitz (RSA) 2:08:54

Jonathan Mellor (GBR) 2:09:06

Dewi Griffiths (GBR) 2:09:49

Weynay Ghebresilasie (GBR) 2:09:50

Jacob Kiplimo (UGA) debut

Alex Yee (GBR) debut