M80+ at London 2026: Fanshawe Leads a Field of Legends

• John Fanshawe won the M80+ group in 4:07:16 — a 9:26/mi average that put more than 55 minutes between him and second place.
• Iain Day held second in 5:02:26, with Chris Harland and Paul Watson separated by just 4 minutes 4 seconds for the final podium spots.
• David John Winch started as the fastest man in the group — climbing to the highest men's standing of anyone in M80+ through the opening 10K — before fading across the second half to finish fifth in 5:51:16.
• All 13 men over 80 years old finished a full marathon in London. The last across the line, Bill O'Connor, did so in 8:39:55.

John Fanshawe didn't just win the M80+ group — he ran away from it. His 9:26/mi pace held firm across 26.2 miles in cool, breezy London conditions, and his men's field standing improved steadily at every checkpoint, climbing from well outside the top 20,000 at 5K all the way to inside the top 16,000 by 35K. That kind of sustained forward momentum through the second half of a marathon, at any age, is worth noting.

Behind him, Iain Day ran a composed race to secure second in 5:02:26, while the battle for third was the group's tightest subplot. Chris Harland (5:28:20) and Paul Watson (5:32:24) were locked together for much of the race — both men's standings tracking almost identically through the middle miles — with Harland ultimately taking third by four minutes. Both men were still finding their strongest relative splits late, in the 40K-to-finish stretch, which tells you they managed their effort well enough to finish strong.

Winch's race told a different story. He was the group's early flier, posting the strongest men's standing of anyone in M80+ through the first 10K, but the pace proved costly. He dropped steadily through the field across the final 20 miles, finishing fifth. Robin Scott and Stuart Colwill ran nearly identical races to finish sixth and seventh, separated by just 82 seconds after more than six hours on the road. From Mahmut Hilmi in eighth to Bill O'Connor in thirteenth, every man in that back half of the group crossed the line — and at 80-plus, that is the whole point.