World marathon champion Peris Jepchirchir has announced her withdrawal from this year’s London Marathon scheduled for 26th April due to injury.
The Tokyo 2020 Olympic champion took too much time to recover from an injury she suffered when she finished 2nd in Valencia Marathon last December and resumed to training late January which was inadequate time to prepare well for London marathon .
According to the 32-year-old, the healing of the injury took too long, hence affecting her .
“I was only able to resume training in late January.I know that to be competitive at the London Marathon you have to be at your top level, and despite my best efforts, I’m just short of that due to my lack of training,” she said in a statement.
Jepchirchir won the race in 2024, setting the women’s only World record of 2:16:16, before it was shuttered last year.
It marks the 2nd year in a row for the Kenyan to skip the London Marathon after missing last year’s edition due to an ankle injury.
She is the latest high-profile athlete to withdraw from this year’s London Marathon following the withdrawal of the 2024 Paris Olympic champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.
Two-time Boston and double New York marathon champion Hellen Obiri, 2021 London marathon champion Joycilene Jepkosgei and Catherine Amanang’ole are the only Kenyans who will race against defending champion Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia.
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