Marathon runners now wait on Rio selectors

For several of Ireland’s best marathoners, the door finally closed on Olympic qualification at the London Marathon yesterday, with the race to Rio de Janeiro now left in the hands of selectors ahead of next month’s deadline.

Rathfarnham’s Sean Hehir was the leading Irish finisher, running a personal best of 2:17:20. The race was won by Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge, who routed the field and narrowly missed the world record with his winning time of 2:03:05.

Hehir, a former winner of the Dublin Marathon, broke his personal best by 15 seconds, but his time will not be enough to enter the reckoning for Olympic selection. He was followed in by Thomas Frazer, who also passed halfway in under 67 minutes but also faded over the latter half to record 2:19:17. Stephen Scullion was the third Irish finisher, the 27-year-old paying heavily for a fast first half of 1:06:27 and coming home in 2:20:39, while Gary O’Hanlon ran 2:21:42.