London Marathon: Limo and Kastor win race

Felix Limo out-sprinted defending champion Martin Lel to win the men's race of the London Marathon on Sunday.

The two Kenyans ran side by side for the final 2 kilometers (1.2 miles) before Limo made his break with the finishing line in sight. Limo timed 2 hours, 6 minutes, 39 seconds.

Lel was runner-up two seconds back, while Hendrick Ramaala of South Africa was third in 2:06:55.

Limo, 25, won the Berlin and Rotterdam marathons in 2004 and last year's Chicago Marathon. This was his first London Marathon.

Lel, Limo, Rogers Rop and Ramaala made a break at 38 kilometers (23.6 miles) from a group that included Haile Gebrselassie, Khalid Khannouchi and Evans Rutto. By 40 kilometers (24.8 miles), Lel and Limo were running alone in the lead to set up the sprint finish.

Deena Kastor was an emphatic winner of the Flora London Marathon women's race with an unofficial time of two hours 19 minutes 36 seconds.

Kastor dominated the race as he shattered the American record of 2hrs 21mins 16 secs she set three years ago in London when she finished third behind Paula Radcliffe.

The American's confident front-running display saw her shake off her lone challenger Susan Chepkemei before the 17-mile mark.

Kastor, paced to 23 miles by male training partner Mike McKeeman and then Kenyan Henry Tarus, never looked back after the decisive break.

The Olympic bronze medallist became the eighth woman to better 2hr 20min for the distance as she lived up to her pre-race favourite tag, also setting a world leading time for 2006.

It slightly improved the 2:19:51 achieved by China's Chunxiu Zhou five weeks ago in Seoul, and moved her to third place on the world all-time list.