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Touching moment runner sacrifices marathon to help rival

A London Marathon runner has been heralded for an incredibly selfless act of sportsmanship that saw him carry an exhausted rival across the finish line.

Matthew Rees noticed that fellow competitor David Wyeth had pushed his body beyond its limits as he staggered and swayed a few hundred metres short of the finish line.

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So the runner from the Swansea Harriers running club decided to sacrifice his own race to help out his rival from Chorlton Runners, whose legs began to buckle underneath him.

"Every single part of his body is shutting down but what we're seeing is the camaraderie and the spirit of the Marathon," one of the BBC commentators said.

Princes William and Harry were both watching on and like everyone else in the crowd, the Royals were amazed by the extraordinary scenes unfolding before their eyes.

"I took the final corner thinking 'right, it's nearly done, time to sprint', and I saw this guy and his legs just crumbled below him," Rees revealed after the race.

"I saw him try to stand up again and his legs just went down again, and I thought 'this is more important, getting him across the line is more important than shaving a few seconds off my time.'

"I went over to try and help him and every time he tried to get up he just fell down again and again, so I just tried to cheer him on, picked him up and said: 'Come on, we can do this'.

"He was really grateful, but he wasn't very coherent, he was just like 'I have to finish, I have to finish' and I said 'you will finish, you will get there, come on let's do this', but every time he tried to move he would just fall again so it was important to guide him."

The touching moment was reminiscent of last year's world triathlon series when British Olympic gold medallist Alistair Brownlee helped his near-unconscious brother Jonny take second place in the final.

Daniel Wanjiru claimed a surprise London Marathon win ahead of a resurgent Kenenisa Bekele, while Kenyan compatriot Mary Keitany lit up the women's race on Sunday.

Wanjiru, 24, secured the biggest triumph of his career with a bold run that left Ethiopia's Bekele, last year's Berlin Marathon winner, with too much to do.

Despite a strong finish, Bekele could not close the gap as Wanjiru held off the 5000 and 10,000 meter world record holder, with Bedan Karoki third.

Keitany knocked 41 seconds off the women-only world record, the 35-year-old crossing the line in 2:17.01 — the second fastest time in history by a woman.

It marked her third marathon success in London as she finished ahead of Tirunesh Dibaba and Aselefech Mergia.

Keitany's time is the quickest in an exclusively female race, while Paula Radcliffe's long-standing world record of 2:15.25 came when she ran against men and women.