M70-74 at TCS London Marathon 2026: Cervantes Runs Down the Field Late

• Luis Alfonso Cervantes won the M70-74 age group in 3:30:29 (8:02/mi), finishing nearly five minutes clear of the runner-up.
• Paul Sanderson was the biggest mover in the top five, climbing from deep in the men's field early on to finish 4th in 3:38:03 — one of the most sustained progressions of the race.
• Martin Milward and Maurice O'Connell both clocked 3:42:07, separated only by the finest of margins at the line — Milward edged it for 7th, O'Connell taking 8th.
• 225 men aged 70–74 finished on a cool, breezy London day — a serious field for a serious age group.

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Luis Alfonso Cervantes made his move where it counted most. After tracking mid-pack through the first half, he found another gear on the 35K-to-40K stretch — posting a split fast enough to overtake hundreds of runners in the broader men's field in that single segment alone — and crossed the line in 3:30:29 to claim the M70-74 title by 4 minutes and 56 seconds. At 8:02 per mile for 26.2 miles, in 56°F with a 14 mph headwind in the mix, that is a performance worth sitting with.

Behind him, Skender Gashi and Donal Murphy ran one of the tighter battles of the day. Gashi finished 2nd in 3:35:25, Murphy 3rd in 3:35:46 — just 21 seconds apart after more than three and a half hours of racing. Their routes there differed: Gashi started faster among the men but faded through the back half, while Murphy was more consistent throughout, making up ground steadily before Gashi held on by less than half a minute.

Paul Sanderson's race told a different story altogether. He was buried in the men's field at the start, but ran progressively faster as the miles piled up, moving through the field all the way to 4th place in 3:38:03. David Pitt rounded out the top five in 3:38:54, just 51 seconds back, having run a more even-paced effort through the middle stages.

Further down, Michael Warrick in 6th (3:39:40) completed a tightly-packed top six — the entire group from 2nd through 6th covered by just four minutes and 15 seconds. Mike Pocock (9th, 3:49:51) and David King (10th, 3:51:00) anchored the top ten, with Kenneth Lyne and Ian Newsham rounding out the listed field in 19th (4:04:34) and 20th (4:07:09) respectively, ahead of 205 more finishers who made it to the line on a proper marathon day in London.