Martin Duff brings us the headlines from the leading masters of the 2026 London Marathon.
While Ryan McLeod and Andrea Clement were the leading veteran runners in the event, further down the field there were two new British age group records.
Alice Braham beat the previously listed British best time for women over 50 by almost nine minutes with a chip time of 2:36:25 after running through the half marathon in a near-perfect split of 78:15.
He said: “The gun went off at 9:35 a.m. for our championship start and it took me about 20 seconds to cross the line, so the discrepancy between the gun and the chip should only be 20 seconds or so, hopefully.”
It looks like it took Braham 25 seconds to cross the start line, so since the records are based on gun times, that means 2:36:50 would be the official record.
The Ealing Eagles 50-year-old, who ran for Great Britain as a junior at the World Cross Country Champs in 1995, added: “The street support was second to none and I’m so happy and feeling good all the way, despite the less than ideal training in January and February.”
The run followed two solid half marathons in February and March in Wokingham and Reading with times of 77:44 and 78:03.
READ MORE. Alice Braham Interview 2024
Braham, who is also a mother of four, covered the 10km in 36:51 and the half in 78:15, with even kilometers split between 3:40 and 3:47.
It was Bristol’s Annabelle Granger who held the previous record but had no answer this time, with the Bristol & West runner a distant second in 2:49:39.
The second new benchmark came a little earlier when Will Green beat the long-standing M50 record set by Derek Lawson back in 1986 by nearly two minutes. At the London Marathon, by nearly two minutes with a chip time of 2:23:07.
Running at a perfectly even pace, the serpentine 50-year-old covered the half distance in 71:35 before winning his age group by more than four minutes over Woodbridge’s Stuart Haynes.
The new record is likely to be set at 2:23:13, as it took Green six seconds to cross the starting line.
McLeod, who is on the comeback trail after heart problems, ran at a conservative pace and was well behind M45 leader John Gilbert for most of the race after the Kent runner covered 10km in 31:44 and the half marathon in 67:23.
McLeod was down two minutes at this point and was down more than a minute at 30km, but caught his man just after the 40km board before taking first master in 2:19:41.
Gilbert was next in 2:20:21, after a fine course that set three new British records more than halfway through the race.
Clement was always in control of the top spot in the Women’s Masters, with a number of kilometer splits of 3:32 and 3:38 outright, albeit up to the 30km board.
These included a 10km split of 35:16 and a half marathon time of 74:55. Clement then slipped a bit, with a final kilometer pace of 3:45, his slowest.
It was Clement’s second marathon in only 2:45:49 in 2008.
Older runners were affected by the rising temperatures, which saw the mercury rise to 18C for the over 70s.
At 88, Harry Newton of Macclesfield Harriers was the oldest finisher in this year’s race, completing the course in 7:53:59.
Positions based on chip times.
Men
M40: 1 R McLeod (Morp) 2:19:41; 2 O Jonssen (SWE) 2:22:18; 3 D Gaffney (S Lon) 2:23:48
M45: 1 J Gilbert (Kent) 2:20:21; 2 M Pioneer (ITA) 2:22:25; 3 K Quinn (S Lon) 2:25:03
M50: 1 W Green (Serp) 2:23:07; 2 S Haynes (W’bridge) 2:27:09; 3 P Greig (AUS, P’slade) 2:31:06
M55: 1 N Hughes (ATW) 2:39:15; 2 T Mardall (R Next Sea) 2:41:38; 3 S Hughes (Lancas) 2:41:40
M60: 1 G Mason 2:46:08; 2 L Cotter (IRL) 2:52:37; 3 K Gale (Denm) 2:54:40
M65: 1 K Murray (Serp) 3:02:53; 2 M Slaney (BMU) 3:03:52; 3 B Vega (ESP) 3:04:36
M70: 1 S Gashi (Kos) 3:35:25; 2 D Murphy (IRL) 3:35:46; 3 P Sanderson (G&G) 3:38:03
M75: 1 M Sheridan (Nub) 3:35:31; 2 R Pfeiffer (USA) 3:41:17; 3 F Brennan (Tri Tempo) 3:41:49
M80: 1 J Fanshawe 4:07:16
Women
W40: 1 A Clement (B&B) 2:32:11; 2 Y Son (CHN) 2:38:27; 3 R Bunting (Lon H) 2:41:53
W45: 1 S Holt (Stragh) 2:37:46; 2 H Gaunt (Ton) 2:43:44; 3 E Owen (Ton) 2:52:40
W50: 1 A Braham (Ealing E) 2:36:25; 2 A Granger (B&W) 2:49:39; 3 G Pearson (Yeo) 2:54:26
W55: 1 A Riddell-Webster (Fulham) 2:56:44; 2 J Rockliffe (W Tempo) 2:59:05; 3 S Swinhoe (Lon H) 3:04:55
W60: 1 R Hutton (S Lon) 3:13:38; 2 J Phillips (Orp) 3:17:32; 3 M Slocombe (Ward P) 3:17:49
W65: 1 L Tyler (Farne R) 3:24:20; 2 S Masters (W’bury) 3:28:25; 3 C Ferguson (Serp) 3:36:21
W70: 1 L Compton (Ling) 4:16:07; 2 D Lazaroff (USA) 4:23:00; 3 G Stapleton (Barn) 4:27:52
W75: 1 S Garner (Ling) 5:20:28
