Kenyan Mary Keitany achieves third victory in the London Marathon

Kenyan Mary Keitany, at the age of 35, achieved her third victory in the London Marathon with the best time ever recorded in a women's race (2:17:01 hours). Her young compatriot Daniel Wanjiru defeated the favorite, Ethiopian Kenenisa Bekele, to win with a time of 2:05:48 hours.

Unrelated to the Olympic champion of Beijing 2008 (Sammy), who died in 2011, Wanjiru resisted Bekele's pressure, second in the all-time world rankings (2:03:03 hours) and obtained the most prestigious victory of his career.

Bekele, triple Olympic champion on the track and five-time world champion in track events, resurged in the last five kilometers after going through moments of crisis and began to regain positions, but he couldn't complete the chase. He arrived nine seconds later.

The race became very exciting when Bekele started to chase after Wanjiru, but the Kenyan, in his fourth marathon, was able to manage his strength and arrived victorious at the finish line, with the monumental Buckingham Palace in the background.

Mary Keitany adorned her third victory today with the second best absolute time in history (2:17:01 hours), a new world record in a women-only race.

Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba, triple Olympic champion and five-time world champion in track events, finished second with the third best time of all time (2:17:56 hours).

Winner in the British capital in 2011 and 2012, 35-year-old Keitany started like a rocket in search of the triple crown: 31:17 minutes at kilometer 10, much faster than Paula Radcliffe (32:01 minutes) when she broke the world record here in 2003.

She couldn't beat the absolute world record, still held by Radcliffe with 2:15:25 hours, but she did take away the women-only marathon record from the British athlete. Five months after completing a hat-trick in the New York Marathon, she achieves the same feat in London.