Newham & Essex Beagles Lee Merrien runs in the marathon

Great Britain marathon runners Lee Merrien and Scott Overall finished down the field as the African predictably dominated the Olympic marathon this morning in front of huge crowds around London.

London's Scott Overall runs in the marathon

Great Britain marathon runners Lee Merrien and Scott Overall finished down the field as the African predictably dominated the Olympic marathon this morning in front of huge crowds around London.

Newham & Essex Beagle Merrien and Overall of Blackheath and Bromley Athletics Club were never going to challenge in this sort of company, but both put in gallant efforts in tough, hot conditions that favoured the Africans.

It was the 29-year-old Overall who charged ahead of his British team-mate early on. The Hammersmith-born runner reached the halfway mark in one hour, five minutes and 30 seconds, with Merrien not too far behind him, but the heat was to take its toll on the Londoner.

Instead it was the 33-year-old Beagle who came back over the last part of the race to overtake the clearly suffering Overall and eventually finish in an excellent 30th place, clocking two hours, 17 minutes.

Overall finally came in back in 61st place with a time of 2:22.39.

Earlier Kenyan Wilson Kipsang had kicked clear after just 10 miles of the course and it proved to be a devastating move for many as the heat took its toll on the 100 plus athletes who quickly began to drop off the pace.

A group of eight runners settled into the chase as the course took them around loops of the top landmarks in the Capital.

Two Kenyans, two Ethiopians, a Ugandan an Eritrean, a Brazilian and a South African were in the chasing group, but as the race began to reach its climax, Kipsang’s initial break was not to prove decisive.

Fellow Kenyan Abel Kirui and Steven Kiprotich of Uganda caught up with the leader with eight miles still to go and it was the three of them who were in the shake-up for the medals.

The Kenyans began to team up to try and thwart the efforts of the Ugandan and at the 35km mark, they finally seemed to have broken his resistance as Kiprotich clutched his leg momentarily and then began to fade.

However, Kiprotich finally found his second wind and stormed past both stunned Kenyans to pull away with just three kilometres to go.

Kirui was the only one to give chase, but it was to be a forlorn effort as the Ugandan powered away to finish on The Mall and clinch a glorious surprise gold medal in a time of two hours, eight minutes and one second.

Kirui was second with long-time leader Kipsang, the fastest man in the field on paper, holding on for the bronze medal.

For the British runners it was simply a case of getting to the finishing line as other athletes failed to complete the tough course.

Both managed it, cheered to the line by the thousands of people who lined the course.