London Marathon: Travel chaos hinders Yamauchi race

Great Britain's Mara Yamauchi refused to blame her travel woes after finishing 10th in the Virgin London Marathon yesterday.

Liliya Shobukhova, who claimed third in London a year ago on her debut over the distance, became the first Russian woman to win the event in a time of two hours, 22 minutes.

Shobukhova sliced over two minutes off her personal best to finish ahead of countrywoman Inga Abitova and Ethiopia's Asselefech Mergia, who claimed second and third.

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While Shobukhova and Abitova toasted their unique Russian one-two, Yamauchi crossed the line in 2:26:16 which at least gave her a qualifying time for the summer's European Championships.

There were no excuses from the Oxford-born athlete, despite her lengthy journey to London thanks to the air travel havoc caused by the Icelandic volcanic ash cloud.

The 36-year-old travelled 6,500 miles from Albuquerque, New Mexico – via, Denver, New York, Lisbon, Madrid and Paris before catching a private plane from Le Touquet last Wednesday – to get to the start line on schedule.

Yamauchi was, because of injury, contesting her first marathon since finishing second in last year's race, but blamed neither that nor her gruelling journey.

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She said: "I can't stand it when athletes reel off excuses. I was not as prepared as last year. It is not the end of the world.

"The time is not that slow. It was a deep field. I will have to go away and work hard and come back next year."

But she admitted: "I was working hard to stick with that pace and a combination of the journey and having been injured during the last year.

"Maybe I was not as well prepared. After halfway I was on my own. The journey to get here tired me out a bit more than I thought. I thought about dropping out at one point, but that would have been pointless, and I decided I might as well finish."

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After leading for much of the second half of the race, Shobukhova, the 32-year-old European 5000 metres track record holder used her finishing speed to outpace countrywoman Inga Abitova with Ethiopia's Asselefech Mergia third.

Tsegaye Kebede was even more convincing than Shobukhova as he finally halted Kenya's domination of the men's event since his fellow Ethiopian Gezahegne Abera won in 2003.

The expected challenge on on Haile Gebrselassie's world record was ruled out by a slow start, but the Olympic and World Championships bronze medallist took charge of the race after 21 miles.

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