London Marathon: women’s race weakened after Eilish McColgan injury

The women’s London Marathon, which has been billed as one of the strongest distance races in history, will be missing Eilish McColgan after the popular Scottish runner pulled out with a knee injury on Friday.

“Trust me, I’ve tried,” she said. “But it’s just got to the point where it’s not going to be feasible to run a marathon this weekend.”

McColgan’s debut over 26.2 miles in a high-class field including the world record holder Brigid Kosgei, Olympic champion Peres Jepchirchir and last year’s winner Yalemzerf Yehualaw had been highly anticipated given the 32-year-old’s brilliant performances in 2022 which included gold over 10,000m at the Commonwealth Games. The Olympic 5,000m and 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan is also competing.

But a knee injury picked up in a race in Berlin in February has not cleared up – which means that McColgan will not be able to emulate her mum Liz, who won the event in 1996.

“Unfortunately, my knee hasn’t improved as much as I wanted it to,” explained McColgan. “I was hopeful I could participate after some knee bursitis I had in February – I could run through that and I have tried to run through this but it has got to the point where it isn’t feasible to run a marathon.

“There have been a few factors that have come together like a bad storm in the past three weeks and the knee issue has been the final crack in the armour.

“I’m disappointed and know I’m ready to run a good marathon. That is what makes it hard to not be there on the start line. As an athlete I wanted to compete, but I’m a firm believer these things happen for a reason. There will be another London Marathon in my future where, hopefully, I will be able to perform well.”