The 44th TCS London Marathon takes place this Sunday 21 April 2024, with 14,000 children due to take part in the TCS Mini London Marathon on Saturday 20 April. TCS will award £10 per finisher to their schools to spend on PE or IT equipment. In addition, more than 350,000 children are registered for the TCS Mini London Marathon in schools, which runs until 10 May.

The elite women's race will be started at 9:25am by Jasmin Paris – the first woman to have completed the Barkley Marathons – followed by the elite men's and the masses race at 10:00am started by double Olympic gold medallist Dame Kelly Holmes.

Paris said: “It’s a great honour to have been asked to start the women’s race at the TCS London Marathon. I’m excited to see some of the best marathon runners in the world take on the London Marathon this weekend – maybe we will even see a world record!" 

Dame Kelly said: “It’s a privilege to be one of the official starters of the 2024 TCS London Marathon. I’ve run the London Marathon once before and it was a tough but wonderful challenge."

We previewed the elite races here on runABC and our reporter predicted a women's only world record will be set – the time to watch is 2:17:01. The race will be screened live by BBC and transmission times are BBC One from 08:00 to 14:00; BBC Two from 14:00 to 15:00.

There will be added poignancy to the elite men's race as the 2023 champion and world record holder (2:00:35) Kelvin Kiptum – who ran an astonishing 2:01:25 course record in London last year – died in a tragic car crash in Kenya on 11 February 2024, aged just 24.

The runner-up to Kiptum last year was fellow Kenyan Geoffrey Kamworor, a close friend of Kiptum, who gave the teenage prodigy a pair of racing shoes to help his career after he had won the 2019 Kass Half Marathon in Eldoret, Kenya in 1:04:48!

British athletes will seek to impress the selectors one day before GB teams for the Paris Olympic Marathon are announced. Among the pacemakers will be three pre-selected Olympic athletes: Charlotte Purdue, Calli Hauger-Thackery, and Phil Sesemann.

Whether you are running, supporting, volunteering, or watching on the telly – have a great day!

Results and previous news reports at the runABC South race listing here.

Image of men's top three in 2023 courtesy TCS London Marathon