One of women’s distance running’s biggest champions will not be on the start line for this month’s London Marathon, as defending winner Peres Jepchirchir has confirmed her withdrawal from the 2025 event due to a lingering injury.
The 32-year-old Kenyan, who boasts an elite resume that includes gold at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, a world championship title, and a women-only world record run at last year’s London Marathon, was diagnosed with an unspecified stress fracture after she crossed the line in second place at the Valencia Marathon last December. The injury forced an unexpected pause to her winter training block, which Jepchirchir says has left her unprepared to compete at the top level required for the World Marathon Major.
In an official statement shared with race organizers, Jepchirchir explained that she was only able to return to structured 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.
This marks the second consecutive year that the elite distance runner has been forced to pull out of the London race; an ankle injury kept her sidelined from the 2023 event, before her historic 2:16:16 world record victory in 2024.
Jepchirchir’s withdrawal adds to the list of high-profile athletes missing from the April 26 start line. Sifan Hassan, the women’s marathon gold medalist at the 2024 Paris Olympics, previously announced her exit from the race after suffering an Achilles injury.
Despite the losses of two of the women’s field’s top contenders, race organizers are still expected to deliver one of the most competitive fields in the event’s history, with dozens of the world’s top distance runners set to compete for the title and prize purse.