Cairess and Mahamed bag Olympic spots with stunning London Marathon runs
British pair Emile Cairess and Mahamed Mahamed produced blistering London Marathons to book their Team GB spots for the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Cairess ran the second fastest marathon ever by a British man – two hours, six minutes and 46 seconds – to take third place behind Kenyan Alexander Munyao and 41-year-old Kenenisa Bekele.
Mahamed crossed the finish line on The Mall just 19 seconds behind Cairess, making him the third fastest British marathon runner in history.
It means both 26-year-olds have qualified for Team GB’s marathon line-up at this summer’s Olympics, along with Cairess’s training partner Phil Sesemann.
“I stuck to my race plan to move into third place. I’m really proud of that. It pretty much means I’m selected for the team, I’ll definitely be there,” said Cairess, from Bradford.
“I needed to do another marathon before the Olympics, it’s a risk that paid off. I don’t think I had the fitness for the British record.”
Mo Farah ran the fastest marathon by a British man in 2018, clocking 2:05:11 in Chicago to beat Steve Jones’s long-standing mark of 2:07:13.
Former world record holder Bekele was attempting to win his first London Marathon but lost out in the last three miles as Munyao kicked on to finish in 2:04:01.
Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir won the elite women’s race in a world record time for a marathon run without male pacemakers.
Jepchirchir clocked 2:16:16 to beat Ethiopian Tigst Assefa and fellow Kenyan Joyciline Jepkosgei, who all beat the previous women-only record of 2:17:01 set by Mary Keitany in 2017.
