Kiwi distance runner Kimberley Smith finished eighth in the London Marathon last night, in the best time clocked for the distance by a New Zealand woman.Smith's unofficial time was 2h 25m 19s - nearly three minutes quicker than Lorraine Moller's previous record.
Moller ran 2h 28m 17s at the 1986 Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh.
Smith's run continues her recent stretch of rich form. She carved more than two minutes off her own New Zealand half marathon record in finishing second in New Orleans in 1h 7m 55s in March.
She had previously set the New Zealand half-marathon record by finishing seventh in last year's world half-marathon championship in Birmingham in 1h 9m 35s.
Russian runner Liliya Shobukhova won yesterday's 42.2km race in 2h 22m 0s.
The 32-year-old Shobukhova held off fellow Russian Inga Abitova in 2 hours, 22 minutes to follow her victory in Chicago in October and improve on her third-place finish in London last year on her marathon debut.
In wet conditions, Aselefech Mergia, of Ethiopia, was third.
The men's section was won by Tsegaye Kebede, of Ethiopia, improving upon his second-place finish last year and ending a streak of six consecutive winners from Kenya.
Kebede, the Olympic bronze medallist at Beijing, had a battle to prevent a seventh London title going to Kenya. Six Kenyan pacemakers spread across the front of the field from the start at Greenwich Park.
At the 35km mark he was grouped with two Kenyans Abel Kirui and Emmanuel Mutai. But the 23-year-old finished the race in 2hr 5min 18sec after passing Mutai.
Jaouad Gharib, of Morocco, was third.
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