More than 50,000 people, from elite athletes to fancy-dressed fundraising fun runners, are taking part in the 26.2-mile event

A record number of runners are pounding the capital’s streets today as the London Marathon gets under way.

More than 50,000 people, from elite athletes to fancy-dressed fundraising fun runners, are taking part in the 26.2-mile event, which is now in its 44th year.

And for once the weather is on their side with a bright, dry outlook an temperatures remaining relatively cool with highs of around 12C.

Before the start, there was a poignant pause and a 30-second round of applause in memory of last year’s elite men’s race winner Kelvin Kiptum.

The 24-year-old athlete, who set a new London Marathon record of two hours, one minute and 25 seconds last year and a new world record of two hours and 35 seconds in Chicago in October, died in a car accident in Kenya in February.

Then the elite athletes were off, first off the blocks were the wheelchair athletes at 9.05am.

Marcel Hug of Switzerland won the wheelchair race for the fourth year running, and a fifth time overall, followed by the United States’ Daniel Romanchuk in second place, and Britain’s David Weir in third. The Swiss also proved victorious in the women’s wheelchair race with Catharine Debrunner crossing the line first in one hour, 38 minutes and 54 seconds.