By Chris Chavez
January 13, 2025
Olympic champions Sifan Hassan and Tamirat Tola will headline the 2025 London Marathon fields on April 27th.
What You Need To Know:
– Hassan returns to London for the first time since she won the 2023 edition of the race in her marathon debut in 2:18:33. She went on to lower her PB to 2:13:44 with a win in that fall’s Chicago Marathon. She skipped London last year to run Tokyo and finished fourth in that race in 2:18:05. She shifted her focus to the track in the spring and then tripled at the Paris Olympics and came away with bronze medals in the 5000m and 10,000m before claiming gold on the final day of the Games. The 2025 London Marathon will be just the fifth marathon of Hassan’s career.
“This is where I ran my very first marathon and began my journey in this incredible distance,” she said in a press release by organizers. “London is also where I learned to be patient, to trust myself, and to keep pushing even when it feels impossible. It is a place where I grew, not just as an athlete, but as a person.”
– Hassan was named the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year and the World Athletics Female Out Of Stadium Athlete Of The Year.
– Tola is racing London for the fifth time in his career. In 2023, he took third in 2:04:59 for his best finish. He is coming off a year in which he won the Paris Olympics with a 2:06:26 on a hilly, challenging course. Most recently, he took fourth at the New York City Marathon in 2:08:12.
“Winning the Paris Olympic Marathon was the greatest moment of my running career but I don’t want it to be my last great moment,” he said in the press release. “I want to continue competing for the biggest titles in this sport and the TCS London Marathon is very much one of those. I know that London always brings the best marathon racers in the world together so it will not be easy, but it is my ambition to win this historic race for the first time in April.”
– The rest of the London Marathon fields are expected to be announced this week.
Chris Chavez
Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.
