The 2026 TCS London Marathon on April 26 will feature what organisers are calling the greatest women's marathon field ever assembled outside of an Olympics or World Championships. Six of the top 12 female marathoners in the world will toe the line, headlined by defending champion and women's-only world record holder Tigist Assefa, who clocked 2:11:53 in Berlin.
The field reads like a who's who of women's distance running. World Champion Peres Jepchirchir brings championship pedigree and a personal best of 2:16:16. Joyciline Jepkosgei arrives fresh from running 2:14:00 at the 2025 Valencia Marathon, making her the second-fastest woman in the field. Hellen Obiri, the dominant force on hilly courses, will for the first time test her legendary finishing kick on London's flat, fast circuit.
The withdrawal of Olympic champion Sifan Hassan due to an Achilles injury sustained on a treadmill six weeks ago has reshaped the race dynamics but done nothing to diminish the quality. Assefa now emerges as the clear favourite, and with pacemakers expected to take the field through halfway in approximately 67:30, the women's-only world record of 2:15:50 and Paula Radcliffe's course record of 2:15:25 are both under serious threat.
The tactical question is whether anyone in the field can live with Assefa's devastating second-half speed. In Berlin, she ran the second half of her world record marathon in approximately 64:30 — a pace that no other woman in this field has demonstrated the ability to sustain. The most likely scenario is a fast, honest pace through halfway followed by a war of attrition over the final 10 kilometres.
For British fans, the domestic field is equally compelling. Charlotte Purdue, Rose Harvey, Abbie Donnelly, Eilish McColgan, and Jessica Warner-Judd represent five of the fastest 10 British female marathoners in history, making the race within a race for British honours as fascinating as the battle for the podium. London 2026 promises to deliver a women's marathon for the ages.