Ethiopia's Tsegaye Kebede and Kenyan Priscah Jeptoo put last year's Olympic disappointments behind them on Sunday with victories in the London Marathon.
Big crowds, undaunted by the Boston Marathon bombings last week, lined the route to cheer on the runners, many of whom wore black ribbons to honour those killed and wounded in the American race.
Kebede, who was not selected for London 2012, overhauled his Kenyan rival Emmanuel Mutai in the final kilometre to win in two hours six minutes four seconds and must surely have secured a place on the list for August's world championships in Moscow.
"Many athletes ran 2:04, because of that they selected them (for the London Olympics)," Kebede told reporters.
"In October I went away, won (in Chicago), ran a personal (best) time (2:04:38) and now I win again this competition," he added.
"I'm happy. Maybe I think I'll run in the world championships," the Ethiopian, also champion in 2010, said with a smile.
Jeptoo had, at least, made it to the London Games but was pipped to women's marathon gold by Ethiopia's Tiki Gelena by five seconds.
This time, however, the Kenyan was not prepared to race it out at the end of the 42.195-km slog around London's streets and after pushing the pace at around 30km, she ran solo up the Mall to win in 2:20.15.
The injection of pace proved too much for Jeptoo's only companion, world champion and compatriot Edna Kiplagat, who began to lag and finished more than a minute behind in second.
Gelena, making her debut in the London Marathon, came a cropper after colliding with a wheelchair racer at a drinks station at 15 km and did not feature among the leaders after halfway, eventually finishing 16th – her shoulders rolling as she laboured to the line.
FARAH CHEERED
Men's Olympic champion Stephen Kiprotech of Uganda also had a disappointing debut, finishing sixth after struggling to keep up with the blistering pace set in the first half of the race, which put paid to world-record holder Patrick Makau, who was 11th.
Britain's double Olympic track champion Mo Farah kept up with the leaders for the first half of the race before dropping out at the Half Marathon stage as planned soon after the athletes crossed Tower Bridge.
Farah, who will make his marathon debut in next year's race, was greeted with a huge cheer from the crowd as he stepped behind the barriers.
A 30-second silence in tribute to the Boston victims was held before the men's and the mass start. London had deployed extra police in the wake of last Monday's two explosions near the Boston finish line which killed three people and wounded 176.
Some 36,000 fun runners, many of them in fancy dress, began the race in the London sunshine.
