Bekele out of London Marathon with calf injury

LONDON: Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele, the second-fastest man in history over the distance, has withdrawn from Sunday's London Marathon with a calf injury which has put paid to his showdown with world record holder Eliud Kipchoge.

Bekele said he picked up the injury after "two fast training sessions too close together", leaving Kenya's Kipchoge as an even hotter favourite to win his fifth title in the race which will be run on a new, multi-lap course at St James's Park.

"I was in good shape but then I picked up a niggle in my left calf in the last weeks of preparation," Bekele said in a statement.

"I have been having treatment every day since then and I truly believed I would be ready but today it is worse and I now know I cannot race on it.

"This race was so important to me. My time in Berlin last year gave me great confidence and motivation and I was looking forward to showing that again."

Bekele's time of two hours one minute and 41 seconds in Berlin was two seconds shy of Kipchoge's world record set on the same course a year earlier.

"I know many people around the world have been looking forward to this race and I am sorry to disappoint my fans, the organisers and my fellow competitors." added Bekele.

"I will take time to recover and become fit again and I hope to be back in London next year."

Kipchoge ran 1:59.40 in an unofficial race in Vienna last October but, as COVID 19 wiped out much of the year's athletics programme, Sunday would have been both men's first race for a year.

"The world has been waiting to see this head-to-head but it will now not happen this Sunday. We know how disappointed he (Bekele) is and we wish him a speedy recovery," said race director Hugh Brasher.

"This was never likely to be just a two-man race as we had four of the top 10 fastest marathon runners ever and six men in the field who have broken 2:05, including (Ethiopians) Mosinet Geremew and Mule Wasihun, second and third last year, and 2018 runner-up Shura Kitata."