Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele has withdrawn from Sunday’s London Marathon with a calf injury, robbing an athletics-starved audience of a showdown with Kenyan world record holder Eliud Kipchoge.
“I am very disappointed that I cannot race on Sunday,” said Bekele.
“I was in good shape but then I picked up a niggle in my left calf after two fast training sessions close together in the last weeks of preparation.”