LONDON MARATHON chiefs had to apologise after giving out the wrong times for the top three in the men’s race – including Mo Farah.
The clock at the finish line showed unofficial times of 2:04.17 for winner Eliud Kipchoge, 2:04.49 for runner-up Tola Shura Kitata and 2:06.21 for Farah.
But then official times – which the BBC and others showed in their initial coverage – claimed them to be slower with Kipchoge clocking 2:04.27, Kitata 2:05 and Farah 2:06.32.
Later marathon chiefs apologised and admitted the unofficial times were in fact correct and claimed a member of staff had manually keyed in the wrong numbers printed on result sheets.
Farah, who won four Olympic golds and six world titles on the track before stepping up to the marathon last October, smashed Steve Jones’ 33-year-old British record.
Kipchoge, meanwhile, had initially targeted fellow Kenyan Dennis Kimetto’s world record of 2.02.57.
But he slowed after what he called “crazy” early pace.
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Farah – in his first marathon since retiring from 5,000m and 10,000m track running – seemed to struggle in the final few miles.
And he admitted he was “knackered” after crossing the line, albeit still shattering the previous Brit best of 2.07:13 set in Chicago in 1985.
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