Brasher predicts elite women's London Marathon race to be better than Paris Olympics

LONDON : London Marathon event director Hugh Brasher is predicting a more competitive women's race on Sunday than the 2024 Paris Olympic marathon later this year, and believes the women's-only world record may fall.

The world's fastest female marathoner Tigst Assefa headlines an elite field that features seven women who have run under two hours, 17 minutes and 30 seconds, including three of the top four fastest women ever.

"No race in the history of our sport has ever had that," Brasher told reporters on Wednesday. "So I have no idea who's going to win but I think it's going to be an incredibly competitive event.

"This will be a harder marathon to win than the Olympic Marathon in Paris, I'm pretty goddamn certain of that."

Assefa clocked 2:11.53 at the Berlin Marathon in September, setting the world record for women in a race alongside male runners, and is aiming to break Mary Keitany's mark of 2:17:01 set in a women-only race at the 2017 London Marathon.

The race has a lot to live up to after Sifan Hassan struggled in the early going last year, even stopping twice to massage her leg, before racing to victory in her debut at the 26.2-mile distance.

"It was the most spectacular race last year, I don't think anyone had seen the eventual winner stopping mid-race and massaging their hamstring in a major race before," Brasher said.

New York City Marathon champion Tamirat Tola, plus Alexander Mutiso Munyao, Dawit Wolde and Kinde Atanaw headline a men's race that is wide open in the absence of last year's winner and world record-holder Kelvin Kiptum.

There will be 30 seconds of applause before the start of the men's race to celebrate Kiptum, who died in a traffic accident on Feb. 12, at the age of 24.

Brasher said he is "99 per cent