Assefa sets women's world record, Sawe wins men's race at London Marathon
Assefa, 28, won the title after finishing runner-up in London and at the Paris Olympics last year. Her rival, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who was born in Ethiopia, finished third.
Tigst Assefa (left) set a new women's only world record and Sebastien Sawe won the men's race at the London Marathon, where thousands participated for competition and charity. (Photo: Getty Images)
Vivek Mishra works as an Assistant Editor with Eastern Eye and has over 13 years of experience in journalism. His areas of interest include politics, international affairs, current events, and sports. With a background in newsroom operations and editorial planning, he has reported and edited stories on major national and global developments.
ETHIOPIA's Tigst Assefa set a new women's only world record of 2hr 15min 50sec to win the London Marathon on Sunday. Kenya's Sebastien Sawe won the men's race, defeating a strong field.
Assefa, 28, won the title after finishing runner-up in London and at the Paris Olympics last year. Her rival, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who was born in Ethiopia, finished third.
Assefa moved ahead of Kenya's Joyciline Jepkosgei as the race entered its final stages. She finished almost three minutes ahead of Jepkosgei, with Hassan well behind in third.
"I was second last year so to win here this year is very special," Assefa told the BBC through an interpreter.
"Last year I had trouble with the cold weather and my hamstring tightened up. This year suited me much more and found it a lot easier."
In the men's race, Sawe broke away at a drinks station after 90 minutes and won in 2hr 02min 27sec. It was Kenya's fourth successive men's victory in London.
Sawe, 29, who also won the Valencia Marathon last December, finished ahead of Uganda's world half marathon record holder Jacob Kiplimo.
Defending champion Alexander Mutiso Munyao edged Abdi Nageeye for third in a photo finish. Four-time champion Eliud Kipchoge finished sixth. Britain's Olympic triathlon champion Alex Yee finished 14th in his marathon debut.
"I am very happy to have won a major marathon," said Sawe.
"I was well prepared for this that is why I was so relaxed and confident. Now this gives me hope that further success in marathons will come."
In the wheelchair category, Switzerland's Marcel Hug and Catherine Debrunner won the men's and women's races respectively.
For Hug, 39, it was his seventh London Marathon win and his fifth in a row. For Debrunner, 30, it was her second consecutive title and third overall.
The event also saw many runners taking part to raise money for charity or to honour personal losses.
The London Marathon is the world's biggest single-day fundraising event, with over £1.3 billion ($1.72 billion) raised for charity since 1981.
The fathers of Alice da Silva, 9, and Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, two of the three young girls murdered last July in Southport, northern England, ran in memory of their daughters. They received a video message from prime minister Keir Starmer.
"Elsie was my best friend, she was perfect, it's like therapy, it's more than just a race," said David Stancombe. Alice's father, Sergio Aguiar, said: "I wanted to do something for her."
Isla Radcliffe, the 18-year-old daughter of three-time London winner Paula Radcliffe, made her marathon debut running for Children with Cancer UK. Isla was diagnosed with cancer aged 13.
The 45th edition of the race aimed to break the record for most competitors. Over 56,000 people were expected to take part, from elite athletes to fun runners, including Sarah Louise Haddock who was dressed as a fish.
The record for the most marathon finishers is 55,646, set at last year's New York Marathon. This month's Paris Marathon had 56,950 starters but fewer finishers.
Prince Andrew attends a Requiem Mass, a Catholic funeral service, for the late Katharine, Duchess of Kent, at Westminster Cathedral in London on September 16, 2025. (Photo by AARON CHOWN/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
PRINCE ANDREW on Friday (17) renounced his title of Duke of York under pressure from his brother King Charles, amid further revelations about his ties to US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
"I will... no longer use my title or the honours which have been conferred upon me," Andrew, 65, said in a bombshell announcement.
He said his decision came after discussions with the head of state, King Charles III.
"I have decided, as I always have, to put my duty to my family and country first," Andrew said in a statement sent out by Buckingham Palace.
He again denied all allegations of wrongdoing, but said "We have concluded the continued accusations about me distract from the work of His Majesty and the Royal Family."
Andrew, who stepped back from public life in 2019 amid the Epstein scandal, will remain a prince, as he is the second son of the late queen Elizabeth II.
But he will no longer hold the title of Duke of York that she had conferred on him.
UK media reported that he would also give up membership of the prestigious Order of the Garter, the most senior knighthood in the British honours system, which dates to 1348.
Prince Andrew (L) and King Charles III. (Photo by ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP via Getty Images)
Andrew's ex-wife Sarah Ferguson will also no longer use the title of Duchess of York, though his daughters Beatrice and Eugenie remain princesses.
Andrew has become a source of deep embarrassment for his brother Charles, following a devastating 2019 television interview in which he defended his friendship with Epstein.
Epstein took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking underage girls for sex.
In the interview, Andrew vowed he had cut ties in 2010 with Epstein, who was disgraced after an American woman, Virginia Giuffre, accused him of using her as a sex slave.
But in an reported exchange that emerged in UK media this week, Andrew told the convicted sex offender in 2011 that they were "in this together" when a photo of the prince with his arm around Giuffre was published.
But he added the two would "play together soon".
Giuffre, a US and Australian citizen, took her own life at her farm in Western Australia on April 25.
"The monarchy simply had to put a stop to it," royal commentator Richard Fitzwilliams told the BBC. "He has dishonoured his titles, he's in disgrace."
Andrew was stripped of his military titles in 2022 and shuffled off into retirement after Giuffre accused him of sexually assaulting her when she was 17.
New allegations emerged this week in Giuffre's posthumous memoir in which she wrote that Andrew had behaved as if having sex with her was his "birthright".
In "Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice", to be published next week, Giuffre wrote she had sex with Andrew on three separate occasions, including when she was under 18.
Andrew has repeatedly denied Giuffre's accusations and avoided a trial in a civil lawsuit by paying a multimillion-dollar settlement.
FILE PHOTO: Jeffrey Epstein poses for a sex offender mugshot after being charged with procuring a minor for prostitution on July 25, 2013 in Florida. (Photo by Florida Department of Law Enforcement via Getty Images)
In extracts published by The Guardian newspaper this week, Giuffre described meeting the prince in London in March 2001 when she was 17.
Andrew was allegedly challenged to guess her age, which he did correctly, adding by way of explanation: "My daughters are just a little younger than you."
The once-popular royal was hailed a hero when he flew as a Royal Navy helicopter pilot during the 1982 Falklands War.
Internationally, he was best known for his 1986 wedding to Ferguson, boosting support for the centuries-old institution five years after his elder brother Prince Charles married Lady Diana Spencer.
Andrew has also become embroiled in a China spying scandal, and The Daily Telegraph revealed on Thursday (16) that he had met three times in 2018 and 2019 with a top Chinese official reportedly at the centre of the case.
The Epstein case also caught up with Ferguson, 65, last month, when an email from 2011 emerged in which she called Epstein a "supreme friend" and sought forgiveness for "letting him down".
She had vowed in the past to "never have anything to do with" Epstein again and called a £15,000 ($20,000) loan the billionaire had made to her "a gigantic error of judgement".
York City councillor Darryl Smalley said the city had lobbied hard for Andrew to drop the title.
"It's obviously a long time coming, but finally they recognised what a massive liability he is," he said.
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