London Marathon 2025 LIVE: Start times, latest weather and pre-race favourites – UK Times

Another Swiss great, Catherine Debrunner, is back to defend her London title in the women’s wheelchair race, with hopes of completing another Swiss double with Marcel Hug. Debrunner also won the Paralympics marathon last summer – one of five gold medals she won in Paris, while she holds the world record too.

The USA’s Susannah Scaroni won in Boston on Monday, while Britain’s Eden Rainbow-Cooper was a Boston champion last year. The Paralympic 100m champion and Scottish sprint queen Sammi Kinghorn will be making her London Marathon debut.

Defending champion, Olympic champion and world record holder Marcel Hug, also known as the ‘Silver Bullet’, is back this year and is the favourite to defend his title for the fifth year in a row. The Swiss great won in Boston on Monday, where the USA’s Daniel Romanchuk was in second. Eight-time London winner David Weir is also back at 45. He retired from the Paralympics after finishing fifth in Paris last summer but is back competing in London – where he finished third last year.

Men: 2:01:25, Kelvin Kiptum (Ken), 2023

Women (mixed): 2:15:25, Paula Radcliffe (GB), 2003

Women only: 2:16:16, Peres Jepchirchir (Ken), 2024

Wheelchair men: 1:23:44, Marcel Hug (Swi), 2023

Wheelchair women: 1:38:24, Catherine Debrunner (Swi), 2022

The 2025 London Marathon will weave through the streets of the capital from Greenwich to Westminster and thousands of spectators are going to be lining the route for a glimpse of their running friends.

Over 56,000 people are expected to take on the mammoth tour of London landmarks, including Buckingham Palace, Cutty Sark and Tower Bridge.

Here’s everything you need to know to plan the day if you’re running or supporting this year’s London Marathon.

Runners have been warned to rethink wearing fancy dress and run at a slower pace for the London Marathon on Sunday as temperatures are set to soar.

Warm and sunny skies are forecast and runners tackling the 26.2 mile course can expect temperatures to reach highs of 22C degrees.

Although sunshine and warm weather may sound favourable, Professor Sanjay Sharma, medical doctor of the TSC London Marathon warned runners that the heat could be a health risk.

“In the conditions forecast for Sunday, you should slow your planned pace. If you were planning to run in fancy dress, please think carefully whether that is still appropriate in the conditions,” he said.

Last year’s race was the first to offer equal prize money to the elite wheelchair races as their able-bodied counterparts.

In 2024, the elite men’s and women’s able-bodied races and men’s and women’s wheelchair races had a total prize pot of £243,000, with the winners receiving $55,000 (£44,000) each.

The prize money on offer this year is the same, with $55,000 going to each winner, the runners-up earning $30,000 (£23,100) and third-place $22,500 (£17,400).

There are also $150,000 (£115,900) bonuses on offer for running sub-2:02 for the men and sub-2:15 for the women, $125,000 (£96,500) for setting a new world record, and $25,000 (£19,300) up for grabs in the elite men’s and women’s races for a new course record.

The London Marathon tends to follow a largely unchanged route since it was first run in 1981. Covering 26.2 miles, the course begins in Greenwich, dropping down from the high point of the race to follow a largely flat course, first heading east to Woolwich before doubling back on itself and follow the Thames to Bermondsey.

From there, the runners cut across London Bridge and turn right to take in Canary Wharf and London’s old Docklands, before a U-turn to track through central London, running along the Embankment until another right turn at Westminster Bridge towards St James’s Park.

The route takes in many famous London landmarks, from the Cutty Sark (mile six), Tower Bridge (mile 12), the Tower of London (mile 22) the London Eye and Big Ben (both mile 25) before its iconic finish line on The Mall near Buckingham Palace.

Viewers in the United Kingdom will be able to watch the London Marathon live on the BBC, with extensive television coverage and online streaming available via the BBC iPlayer and BBC Sport website.

8.50am – Elite wheelchair men’s and women’s races.

9.05am – Elite women’s race.

9.35am – Elite men’s race followed by mass start.

The London Marathon returns in 2025 with an even more star-studded field than usual for one of the biggest events of the year and a record number of runners entering the mass participation event run at the same time.

All the Olympic and Paralympic marathon champions from last year’s Paris Games will compete, along with over 56,000 total runners – smashing the record of 55,646 finishers set at the New York Marathon in November.

Last year a closely-contested women’s race was won by 2021 Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir in a world-record time for a women’s only race (as in, run without male pacemakers).

She crossed the tape in two hours, 16 minutes and 16 seconds, while her compatriot Alexander Mutiso Munyao won the men’s race in 2:04.01.