M40-44: Ryan McLeod Runs 2:19:41 to Dominate the Forties

• McLeod wins by 2:35, finishing in 2:19:41 (5:20/mi) — a commanding margin over Oskar Jonsson's 2:22:16 in 2nd.
• Jonsson's late charge: he posted the 15th-fastest split among men on the 40K-to-finish segment, hauling himself from 37th to 29th in the men's field across the final stretch.
• Yoann Stuck's fade: fastest through the early miles (12th in the men's field at 5K), Stuck slipped from that elite position all the way to 86th among men by the finish — still landing 5th in M40-44 in 2:25:41.
• Tight battle for bronze: Daniel Gaffney (3rd, 2:23:48) and John Hutchins (4th, 2:25:07) were separated by 1:19, with Peter Coates (6th, 2:25:52) just 11 seconds behind Stuck in 5th.

Ryan McLeod ran the kind of race that gets better as it goes. He entered the 15K–20K segment already climbing — moving from 35th to eventually 13th among men by the finish — and his 16th-fastest split among men on that 15K-to-20K stretch was a signal of the engine firing. By the finish line, 2:19:41 at 5:20/mi had put a 2:35 gap between him and everyone else in the M40-44 group across a field of 4,826. That is a decisive win in any company.

Oskar Jonsson ran a different kind of race — patient and progressive. He sat 78th among men through the early checkpoints, moved steadily through the pack, and then uncorked the 15th-fastest men's split of the entire field from 40K to the finish to close in 2:22:16. The late surge earned him 2nd in M40-44 and 29th among men — a strong reward for holding back and trusting the process.

The most dramatic arc belonged to Yoann Stuck. He was flying at 5K — 12th among men, with the 12th-fastest men's split on that opening 5K-to-10K segment — but the pace took its toll. By the finish he had drifted to 86th in the men's field, eventually crossing in 2:25:41 for 5th in M40-44. It is a cautionary tale about London's deceptively flat but relentless second half.

Behind the top five, the M40-44 age group delivered depth across the board. Christopher Busaileh (7th, 2:27:31) through James Savage (20th, 2:31:24) were separated by fewer than four minutes — a tightly packed chase pack that reflected the quality throughout this age group on a cool, breezy London morning.