London Marathon 2011 winners: Mary Keitany and Emmanuel Mutai glory for Kenya

Emmanuel Mutai made it a Kenyan double after winning the Virgin London Marathon in a new course record.

Earlier, his compatriot Mary Keitany smashed her personal best to claim a commanding victory in the women's race.

Mutai's time of 2:04.38, beats the previous best of 2:05.10 set by Samuel Wanjiru in 2009 and also the fifth-fastest time ever.

The 26-year-old, second here last year, broke away at around the 21-mile mark with three-time winner Martin Lel and Patrick Makau making it a clean sweep for Kenya - Lel just edging out his countryman in a sprint finish.

Britain's David Weir claimed an unprecedented fifth Virgin London Marathon wheelchair title with a perfectly-timed sprint finish.

Weir waited until he was within sight of the finish on The Mall before powering past Switzerland's Heinz Frei to become the most successful wheelchair athlete in the event's history.

The victory completes a memorable week after he discovered on Tuesday his partner Emily is expecting a baby boy in August.

Keitany broke away after 15 miles and never looked like being caught as she clocked an unofficial time of two hours 19 minutes and 17 seconds, almost 10 minutes quicker than her debut in New York last year.

The 29-year-old began the year by setting a new world record of 1:05.50 for the half-marathon, becoming the first woman to run under 66 minutes.

And she proved equally adept at double the distance to relegate defending champion Liliya Shobukhova of Russia into second, with Kenya's Edna Kiplagat in third.

Jo Pavey enjoyed an excellent marathon debut, finishing 19th in 2:28.23, comfortably inside the qualifying times for both this year's World Championships in Daegu and next year's London Olympics.

The 37-year-old may opt not to compete in Daegu, but now seems certain to concentrate fully on the marathon rather than returning to the track.

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Pavey nervous before marathon bow

Britain's Jo Pavey has admitted to being nervous ahead of her marathon debut in London this weekend as she targets a place at the 2012 Olympics.

Pavey, 37, is also seeking inspiration from fellow British veteran Helen Clitheroe who last month won gold at the European Indoor Championships.

"It would be a dream for me to run an Olympic marathon, but I'm not complacent about it," said Pavey.

"I was really inspired to see Helen winning after years of trying."

The Devon athlete is realistic enough to know victory may be beyond her this weekend but says she sees fellow 37-year-old Clitheroe as the perfect role model as she targets a marathon place at London 2012.

"Helen is a good friend and I know how hard she's worked for many years," added Pavey.

Weir and Jones on the road to 2012

"She's the same age as me and has also run for years and years. To get to this point and run the best performance of her life after all this time gives me a lot of inspiration.

"Most of us that are doing marathons are around this age and Constantina Dita was 38 when she won the Olympics [in Beijing] so that's always inspiring. I don't feel old yet and my times aren't getting worse yet."

After a troublesome couple of years Pavey knows she faces an uphill battle to qualify for the Olympics, especially given UK Athletics' decision to set a qualifying time of two hours 31 minutes to make it into the team for London 2012.

That time is six minutes faster than the standard released on Friday by the IAAF.

And Pavey knows she will have to compromise between achieving that time on Sunday and trying to be competitive in the race itself.

"I want to strike a balance between being cautious and being competitive," she added.

"In my mind there's a pace I shouldn't go beyond if they go off crazily. Also, having watched previous marathons, people start to come back to athletes who have been more sensible.

"It really depends how hard they go off because I want to do a good performance and not blow it. But I don't want to get to the finish and think 'I could have gone quicker than that'. I think it's going to hurt whatever way I run it and I'm ready for that.

"It would be a dream for me to run an Olympic marathon, but I'm not complacent about it, there's a lot of good talent in Britain. It's not a matter of just scraping the qualifying time, if you do that there will be other athletes that would have run a lot quicker.

"I'd like to think I can run in the 2:20 somethings. It's the best field ever assembled for this race with 13 women able to run quicker than 2:24. It's going to be really difficult, but also a really great opportunity to run a really great time."

A top-quality field has been assembled for the event and in the men's field less than 40 seconds separate the personal bests of the top five athletes in the race, so another close finish could be on the cards.

Olympic champion Samuel Wanjiru was forced to withdraw with a knee injury, preventing the Kenyan from attempting to regain the title he won in 2009.

But he was swiftly replaced in the line-up by three-time winner Martin Lel, who triumphed in London in 2005, 2007 and 2008.

Among Lel's opponents will be defending champion Tsegaye Kebede.

In the women's race, Liliya Shobukhova will be out to retain the title she won 12 months ago.

The Russian's biggest rival could be Germany's Irina Mikitenko, who won the race in 2009.

In the absence of Paula Radcliffe and Mara Yamauchi, Britain's hopes in the women's event rest with Pavey, Olympian Liz Yelling, the 2006 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, and Yelling's sister-in-law Hayley Yelling.

Like Pavey, who was sixth in the recent New York City half-marathon, Hayley Yelling is making her debut over the distance.

Andrew Lemoncello will fly the flag for Britain in the men's race, the Scotsman finishing eighth on his debut last year.

FEATURE: Could a marathon ever be run in under two hours?

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The London Marathon is proving expensive

It's for a good cause: sponsoring friends competing in the London Marathon can be a costly affair

Amid all this argy-bargy about how to fix the economy and put a few coppers back in our collective pockets, may I make a plea for whichever party prevails to sort out the latest stealth tax? I refer, of course, to the huge amounts I’m having to shell out to friends and acquaintances participating in this year’s London Marathon. Virtually my entire address book seems to be running it this year, and each fresh appeal for sponsorship involves a particularly deserving cause. What’s more, my friends’ entreaties leave me in no doubt as to what’s expected, and it doesn’t leave any change out of 50 quid.

The culprit, I suspect, is Eddie Izzard. Anyone who watched the recent documentary in which Britain’s most celebrated cross-dresser completed 43 marathons in 45 days (or was it the other way round?) can be in no doubt that running for charity, once the province of the seasoned athlete, is now an acceptable pastime for middle-class dilettantes. And damned expensive it’s proving, too.

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The first to catch me unawares was an old mate who emailed out of the blue last month. Zoe is an actress of uncertain years with two children, a fondness for Tunnock’s Teacakes and a long-standing condition she alludes to as “a poorly groin”. The only time I’d seen her break into anything resembling a run was when she thought she was going to miss out on the promotional Twixes being distributed outside our local Tube station.

Yet this email announced her participation in this year’s marathon, and went on to express the hope that “I’d dig deep for an old mate”. Her round-robin may have been larkiness itself, couched in the “Oh my goodness, I’m sure I’ll need an iron lung at the end of it” faux-gaucheness of the occasional jogger: but this was no haphazard appeal. On the contrary, her correspondence was highly sophisticated, complete with estimated finishing times and mission statements from her chosen beneficiaries.

That was only the start. The following week, I saw Colin at a party. I should have seen the warning signs – the mineral water in place of the pint, the glowing complexion, the self-righteous smirk. Within seconds, he’d happened to mention that he too was running in this year’s marathon, and five minutes later I was another 30 quid down.

Like Zoe, Colin had gone digital. No longer the dog-eared sponsorship form, produced sheepishly from a back pocket. A simple scrawled promise to offer up 50p per completed mile was no longer enough. Now I had to use my BlackBerry to log on to some specialist website called JustGiving.com while he stood over me with a beatific smile.

With a week still to go, I’ve now been tapped up by so many friends and colleagues that I’m thinking of applying for an emergency loan from the IMF to get me through. And with such vast sums being transferred, even before the starting gun has been fired, the question I want answering is, what happens if they don’t complete the course? Do I get my money back? And how will I ever know?

Of course, I could always go down to the finishing line next Sunday with a stopwatch and a camera, just to check for myself. But, sadly, that won’t be possible. Not that I’ve got anything else on; it’s just that I can no longer afford the Tube fare.

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Blow for London Marathon as three-time winner Martin Lel is forced to pull out again

Three-time champion Martin Lel has been forced to withdraw from this month's Virgin London Marathon for the second successive year.

The Kenyan star, who pulled out on the eve of last year's race with a hip problem, has again seen his ambitions to achieve a record fourth win wrecked by an injury to his right leg.

Virgin London Marathon race director Dave Bedford said: 'It is very disappointing to lose Martin for the second year in a row.

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