Martin Duff brings us a recap of the leading masters performances from the 2026 London Marathon.

While Ryan McLeod and Andrea Clement were the leading veteran runners in the event it was further down the field that there were two new British age group records.

Alice Braham smashed the previously listed British best time for an over-50 woman by nearly nine minutes with a 2:36:25 chip time after going through the half-marathon in a near perfect split of 78:15.

She said: “The gun went at 9:35am for our Championship start and it took me about 20 seconds to cross the line, so the discrepancy between gun and chip should only be 20 seconds or so, I hope.”

It looks like Braham took 25 seconds to cross the start line so, as records are based on gun times, that means 2:36:50 will be the official record.

The Ealing Eagles 50-year-old, who ran for Britain as a junior at the World Cross Country Champs back in 1995, added: “The support on the streets was second to none and I’m so happy and felt good all the way, despite less-than-ideal training during January and February.”

The run followed two solid half-marathon runs in February and March in Wokingham and Reading with times of 77:44 and 78:03.

READ MORE: Alice Braham interview from 2024

Braham, who is also a mum of four, was through 10km in 36:51 and halfway in 78:15 and even kilometre splits throughout between 3:40 and 3:47.

It had been Bristol’s Annabel Granger who had held the previous record but had no answer this time and the Bristol & West runner was a distant second with 2:49:39.

The second new mark had come slightly earlier when Will Green bettered the long-standing M50 record set by Derek Lawson back in the 1986 London Marathon by nearly two minutes with a chip time of 2:23:07.

Running a perfect even pace, the Serpentine 50-year-old was through the half-distance in 71:35 before winning his age group by more than four minutes, over Woodbridge’s Stuart Haynes.

The new record is likely be listed as 2:23:13 as it took Green six seconds to cross the start line.

McLeod, who is on the comeback trail after heart problems, ran at a conservative pace and was well behind leading M45 John Gilbert for almost the entire race after the Kent runner had gone through 10km in 31:44 and the half-marathon in 67:23.

McLeod was two minutes down at this point and still well over a minute down at 30km but caught his man just after the 40km board before going on to be first master in 2:19:41.

Gilbert was in next in 2:20:21 after being well on track to make it three new British records for well over half of the race.

Clement was always in control of the women masters’ event first place with a series of kilometre splits between 3:32 and 3:38 right though until the 30km board.

These included a 10km split of 35:16 and a half-marathon time of 74:55. Thereafter Clement slipped slightly with a final kilometre pace of 3:45 being her slowest.

It was only Clement’s second marathon following a 2:45:49 back in 2008.

The older runners were affected by the rising temperatures which saw the mercury rise to 18C for the winning over-70 runners.

At 88, Harry Newton from Macclesfield Harriers was the oldest finisher in this year's race, completing the course in 7:53:59.

Positions based on chip times.

Men

M40: 1 R McLeod (Morp) 2:19:41; 2 O Jonssen (SWE) 2:22:18; 3 D Gaffney (S Lon) 2:23:48

M45: 1 J Gilbert (Kent) 2:20:21; 2 M Pioner (ITA) 2:22:25; 3 K Quinn (S Lon) 2:25:03

M50: 1 W Green (Serp) 2:23:07; 2 S Haynes (W’bridge) 2:27:09; 3 P Greig (AUS, P’slade) 2:31:06

M55: 1 N Hughes (ATW) 2:39:15; 2 T Mardall (R Next Sea) 2:41:38; 3 S Hughes (Lancs) 2:41:40

M60: 1 G Mason 2:46:08; 2 L Cotter (IRL) 2:52:37; 3 K Gale (Denm) 2:54:40

M65: 1 K Murray (Serp) 3:02:53; 2 M Slaney (BMH) 3:03:52; 3 B Vega (ESP) 3:04:36

M70: 1 S Gashi (Kos) 3:35:25; 2 D Murphy (IRL) 3:35:46; 3 P Sanderson (G&G) 3:38:03

M75: 1 M Sheridan (Newb) 3:35:31; 2 R Pfeiffer (USA) 3:41:17; 3 F Brennan (Tri Tempo) 3:41:49

M80: 1 J Fanshawe 4:07:16

Women

W40: 1 A Clement (B&B) 2:32:11; 2 Y Son (CHN) 2:38:27; 3 R Bunting (Lon H) 2:41:53

W45: 1 S Holt (Strag) 2:37:46; 2 H Gaunt (Ton) 2:43:44; 3 E Owen (Ton) 2:52:40

W50: 1 A Braham (Ealing E) 2:36:25; 2 A Granger (B&W) 2:49:39; 3 G Pearson (Yeo) 2:54:26

W55: 1 A Riddell-Webster (Fulham) 2:56:44; 2 J Rockliffe (W Tempo) 2:59:05; 3 S Swinhoe (Lon H) 3:04:55

W60: 1 R Hutton (S Lon) 3:13:38; 2 J Phillips (Orp) 3:17:32; 3 M Slocombe (Ward P) 3:17:49

W65: 1 L Tyler (Farn R) 3:24:20; 2 S Masters (W’bury) 3:28:25; 3 C Ferguson (Serp) 3:36:21

W70: 1 L Compton (Ling) 4:16:07; 2 D Lazaroff (USA) 4:23:00; 3 G Stapleton (Barn) 4:27:52

W75: 1 S Garner (Ling) 5:20:28